[dsperber]

  Thank you, but there is a problem if your Oppo's analog outputs are occupied being conected to the amp and it's "HDMI Audio" setting is set to "Off" because you don't want your "SACD Output" setting (which is set to "DSD") to be automatically turned into "PCM", without your permission.
It seems I will not be able to avoid constant switching - either cables or "HDMI Audio" setting

 
The A8/A16 has been designed to be "in the loop", both analog and digital, similar to what we used to do in the old days with analog audio equipment's "tape loop" coming from the "TAPE OUT" of the preamp/receiver.  Back then you would find analog audio equipment intended to be involved in "tape recording" (or that analog signal path) would have both INPUT L/R and OUTPUT L/R, to accept input and then pass it on "processed" to the next device in the loop.  For example, my DBX 10/20 and 14/10 EQ's even has TWO pairs of input/output L/R connectors, so that (a) you can accept "source" into the processor and pass the tone-equalized processed output of the EQ on to the next device in the tape loop (e.g. the actual tape deck), or simply use the DBX unit as an external tone control to feed its equalized result back to the preamp/receiver.
 
Typically there would also be switches to control input/output paths, for example my DBX unit's MONITOR: SOURCE/TAPE, and EQ: POST/PRE. This allowed (a) applying the EQ to the original source before feeding it on to the tape deck so that you're be recording content with your desired tone control applied, or (b) passing on the original source untouched by the EQ for tape recording original content as-is, and only applying the EQ to the "returned" signal now being fed back to the preamp for feeding the amp/speakers.
 
Eventually the signal from the last device in the tape loop gets turned around (and possibly passed back through the inputs of the devices on the loop) to be returned back to the "TAPE IN" of the preamp/receiver.  This way you could include as many devices as you wanted to make your tape recordings, while at the same time be listening to either original unprocessed source or the processed output of as many tape loop devices as you care to include, or even use the tape deck as a source device while still benefitting from all the processors in series in the loop.
 
Well, the A8/A16 is the same.  It has both ANALOG-IN and ANALOG-OUT, as well as HDMI-IN and HDMI-OUT.  This facilitates pass-through so that you can interject the A8/A16 between devices if that's what your topology requires.  In fact, the Realiser analog mode connections are further sophisticated by implementation of an internal mechanical relay so that you can actually have the unit powered off (if, say, you're not listening through headphones but instead want to listen through speakers out of your amp say fed via the analog outputs of the Oppo). With the Realiser powered off "analog bypass" is enabled.  In fact you can actually hear a significant "click" when you power it off (i.e. put the unit in "standby"), which is actually the sound of the relays closing.  This design has the analog-inputs simply passed through (like a straight wire, with the Realiser injecting absolutely zero to the signal) directly to the analog-outputs when the unit is in standby mode.
 
You won't have to touch your analog cables to continue listening through speakers if you want, or using headphones if you want.  Jjust insert the A8/A16 between the analog outputs of the Oppo (feeding analog inputs of the Realiser), feeding the Realiser's analog output to your amp.  This guarantees the ability to still use your Oppo as your upstream-decoder (say for your multi-channel FLAC, if the Realiser doesn't decode FLAC, 2-channel or multi-channel... which I would be surprised if it didn't).
 
Just remember that while the A8/A16 have analog inputs this must go through an A-to-D conversion before being usable to produce SVS-processed headphone output.  While this works perfectly fine (the A-to-D converter in the Realiser is high-quality), it can be argued that the more "ideal" source for the Realiser is already-digital via HDMI, either upstream-decoded multi-channel LPCM for the A8/A16 or still-encoded original bitstream for the A16, thus avoiding the need for the extra initial A-to-D step.

 

[462429]

  ...
The music is then fed to the A16 via analog inputs.
...
 
 

I like analog inputs/outputs but in ralation player-amp only and especially in the case of Oppo 105 player. But when the inputs into processor are concerned, I prefer digital (HDMI). Because digitizing signals after they have already been analogized would probably degrade them significantly.  

 

[462429]

 
..
Just remember that while the A8/A16 have analog inputs this must go through an A-to-D conversion before being usable to produce SVS-processed headphone output.  While this works perfectly fine (the A-to-D converter in the Realiser is high-quality), it can be argued that the more "ideal" source for the Realiser is already-digital via HDMI, either upstream-decoded multi-channel LPCM for the A8/A16 or still-decoded original bitstream for the A16, thus avoiding the need for the extra initial A-to-D step.

Yes, exactly, I just replied to esimms86 that I feel a bit skeptical about more DA/AD conversions in a row. In the time of tape recorders we were not so much aware of the quality loss in case of successive conversions.
 
 
Quote:

...
Well, the A8/A16 is the same.  It has both ANALOG-IN and ANALOG-OUT, as well as HDMI-IN and HDMI-OUT.  This facilitates pass-through so that you can interject the A8/A16 between devices if that's what your topology requires.  In fact, the Realiser analog mode connections are further sophisticated by implementation of an internal mechanical relay so that you can actually have the unit powered off (if, say, you're not listening through headphones but instead want to listen through speakers out of your amp say fed via the analog outputs of the Oppo). With the Realiser powered off "analog bypass" is enabled.  In fact you can actually hear a significant "click" when you power it off (i.e. put the unit in "standby"), which is actually the sound of the relays closing.  This design has the analog-inputs simply passed through (like a straight wire, with the Realiser injecting absolutely zero to the signal) directly to the analog-outputs when the unit is in standby mode.
 
You won't have to touch your analog cables to continue listening through speakers if you want, or using headphones if you want.  Jjust insert the A8/A16 between the analog outputs of the Oppo (feeding analog inputs of the Realiser), feeding the Realiser's analog output to your amp.  This guarantees the ability to still use your Oppo as your upstream-decoder (say for your multi-channel FLAC, if the Realiser doesn't decode FLAC, 2-channel or multi-channel... which I would be surprised if it didn't).
...

Thank you, dsperber for your fine solution. Only, I have pretty expensive set of analog cables (Nordost) and now they would become useless and I would need to buy 2 new sets of combined (RCA/3.5) ones, which would turn either too expensive or not good enough.
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Dear dsperber, may I ask you kindly for your opinion on the subject - will our new Realisers call for an extra player (probably UHD Blu-ray) for immersive sound content, or these formats will come to ordinary Blu-rays too, or maybe Oppo will upgrade firmware in that direction ...??
Thank you very much in advance.    

 

[dsperber]

Thank you, dsperber for your fine solution. Only, I have pretty expensive set of analog cables (Nordost) and now they would become useless and I would need to buy 2 new sets of combined (RCA/3.5) ones, which would turn either too expensive or not good enough.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear dsperber, may I ask you kindly for your opinion on the subject - will our new Realisers call for an extra player (probably UHD Blu-ray) for immersive sound content, or these formats will come to ordinary Blu-rays too, or maybe Oppo will upgrade firmware in that direction ...??
Thank you very much in advance.    

 
There are no 3.5 stereo mini-jack connections involved in the analog pass-through construction.  The A8 has eight RCA inputs and eight RCA outputs, and the A16 has 16 sets of input/output pairs.  So yes, if you want to interject the A16 between your current Oppo preamp outputs and your amp inputs with its current eight high-end RCA cables, that will clearly require a second set of eight RCA cables with the associated cost.
 
But again... even if you did invest in a second set of high-end analog RCA cables no matter what the cost, the analog-input method to the Realiser injects an A-to-D step which as a "purist" should be seen as at least somewhat inferior to simply feeding decoded LPCM from the Oppo to the Realiser via HDMI.  The Oppo has two HDMI outputs with the second intended for audio-only (in a "split A/V" configuration setup), so why not just use audio-only HDMI2 out of the Oppo to feed LPCM to the Realiser digitally via HDMI and forget about passing analog through it?  That's what I do with my A8. I then send optical out of the Realiser to my Audio-GD NFB9 external DAC, and then expensive Audioquest XLR analog from the DAC to my Stax SRM-007tII/SR-009. 
 
As far as what's planned for Oppo and the upcoming 203/205 UHD players, your best bet is to get involved in the "Official 203/205 Anticipation Thread" over on AVS Forum to find out more.  But UHD is a video notion, and we're really concerned with the audio side of things here. I don't believe Oppo has intentions of providing firmware upgrades for the existing 103/105 products to internally support the newer audio formats. The expectation is that if you do want to play BluRay's with this audio track that you will configure to feed this as un-decoded source "bitstream" to your new AVR (using HDMI1 out of the Oppo) which will be doing the audio processing.

 

[bmoura]

The Oppo 203 and 205 players are designed to add 4K video to the existing 103 and 105 players according to the folks at Oppo.
If you're looking for 9.1 or 11.2 audio out from Analog Outputs, you will need a different disc player.

 

[462429]

  There are no 3.5 stereo mini-jack connections involved in the analog pass-through construction.  The A8 has eight RCA inputs and eight RCA outputs, and the A16 has 16 sets of input/output pairs.  So yes, if you want to interject the A16 between your current Oppo preamp outputs and your amp inputs with its current eight high-end RCA cables, that will clearly require a second set of eight RCA cables with the associated cost.
...

Thanks for that correction. I thought they were all 3.5. 
 

...
But again... even if you did invest in a second set of high-end analog RCA cables no matter what the cost, the analog-input method to the Realiser injects an A-to-D step which as a "purist" should be seen as at least somewhat inferior to simply feeding decoded LPCM from the Oppo to the Realiser via HDMI.  The Oppo has two HDMI outputs with the second intended for audio-only (in a "split A/V" configuration setup), so why not just use audio-only HDMI2 out of the Oppo to feed LPCM to the Realiser digitally via HDMI and forget about passing analog through it?
.... 

I would also like to avoid that additional A-to-D step (and also buying a second set of analog cables), but I have read somewhere in the Realiser texts that flac decoding is not supported. I can clearly remember the part of the sentence that says "...flac is not supported (or compatible), but for the signals that are supported (or compatible) ..."
 

...
As far as what's planned for Oppo and the upcoming 203/205 UHD players, your best bet is to get involved in the "Official 203/205 Anticipation Thread" over on AVS Forum to find out more.  But UHD is a video notion, and we're really concerned with the audio side of things here. I don't believe Oppo has intentions of providing firmware upgrades for the existing 103/105 products to internally support the newer audio formats. The expectation is that if you do want to play BluRay's with this audio track that you will configure to feed this as un-decoded source "bitstream" to your new AVR (using HDMI1 out of the Oppo) which will be doing the audio processing.

Thank you very much for your opinion and also for the information about the "Official 203/205 Anticipation Thread". 
I agree, UHD is video notion, but if the immersive audio content (movies, but soon surely audio-only too) will be exclusively tied to that video type, then it surely means a lot on the audio side too. I emphasize immersive sound content because that's the area where Realiser makes a real fundamental difference. It brings to headphones something I can't have with my loudspeakers (because I will probably never add a second set of speakers to my ceiling).
However, I've heard recently that the Norway 2L record label has started to put the Auro 3D music content on the plain (HD) Blu-ray discs, in parallel with the DTS MA 5.1 24/192. If only the others would follow! And not only for the music, but for the movies too. In that case the Oppo player would surely stay sufficient. And I'm looking forward to it not because the additional UHD player would be a very big expense (Samsung 8500 is clearly not) but because of the simplicity of the connections (and of course, the high quality of the Oppo).      

 

[462429]

... In that case the Oppo player would surely stay sufficient.
...     

Sorry, I anticipated a firmware upgrade here, which is not sure yet.

 

[NigelJ]

 
There are no 3.5 stereo mini-jack connections involved in the analog pass-through construction.  The A8 has eight RCA inputs and eight RCA outputs, and the A16 has 16 sets of input/output pairs.  So yes, if you want to interject the A16 between your current Oppo preamp outputs and your amp inputs with its current eight high-end RCA cables, that will clearly require a second set of eight RCA cables with the associated cost.
...

Thanks for that correction. I thought they were all 3.5...

Unfortunately dsperber is wrong and you were correct for the A16, to quote from the 'Realiser A16 – Additional  Technical Information, 1 August 2016' pdf:

Analog  Line  I/O

The A16 incorporates 16 low‐latency analog input and output channels (bottom right). Due to space restrictions these signals are handled via stacked stereo 3.5mm jack sockets...

Edit: Link to document added.

 

[462429]

Unfortunately dsperber is wrong and you were correct for the A16, to quote from the 'Realiser A16 – Additional  Technical Information, 1 August 2016' pdf:
Edit: Link to document added.

Thank you very much, NigelJ, for correcting the correction. So, now the analog connection seems even less attractive. But, by the way, one question regarding HDMI connection crossed my mind - can the Oppo player send the immersive sound bitstream to the Realiser even if Oppo's firmware was not upgraded to recognize immersive sound formats? What do you think, NigelJ? And you, dsperber? And the others? I thought It can't send it without knowing it, but now I am not so sure.  

 

[462429]

  The Oppo 203 and 205 players are designed to add 4K video to the existing 103 and 105 players according to the folks at Oppo.
If you're looking for 9.1 or 11.2 audio out from Analog Outputs, you will need a different disc player.

I think if they add 4K video they will probably add the corresponding new audio formats too. But, I don't believe they expect the owner of the Oppo 105 will readily buy the new 205.  

 

[dsperber]

Unfortunately dsperber is wrong and you were correct for the A16, to quote from the 'Realiser A16 – Additional  Technical Information, 1 August 2016' pdf:
Edit: Link to document added.

 
Well, that's certainly embarrassing!  I stand corrected.  You are absolutely correct.  It does support 16-channel analog input and output, and says so in just so many words on the 1st page of the original Tech Spec Datasheet. Of course if you go down to the bottom to look at the picture of the rear of the unit, sure enough there are 16 pairs of 3.5mm jacks.
 
My mistake.  Didn't intend to disseminate or spread incorrect information.  I just honestly didn't realize that was the story with the A16 as the A8 does have 8 pairs of RCA.  My ignorance here.  Now I know the true facts of the A16.
 
In any case, I still feel that the HDMI-input approach to providing multi-channel source to the Realiser is the superior choice since the A-to-D step (to re-digitize source which was already digital to begin with and had already gone through D-to-A upstream in order to be delivered as analog) is avoided.  If preserving a "pristine" analog path from preamp to amp with high-priced interconnects is that important, I wouldn't tamper with it by injecting the Realiser into that pathway even if it did have 16 RCA connectors!
 
Get the best-possible analog audio from your preamp/cable/amp/speakers when you want to listen to real speakers for sure by leaving it just as it is.  And also get the best-possible Realiser results when you want to listen through headphones by feeding it original quality digital source via HDMI, either bitstream if it can decode the audio codec format, or upstream-decoded LPCM if it cannot.  Avoiding both D-to-A in the Oppo and A-to-D in the Realiser has got to be the "best" way to get the best-possible Realiser results we're really focused on here in this discussion.

 

[NigelJ]

...But, by the way, one question regarding HDMI connection crossed my mind - can the Oppo player send the immersive sound bitstream to the Realiser even if Oppo's firmware was not upgraded to recognize immersive sound formats? ... I thought It can't send it without knowing it, but now I am not so sure.  

The Oppo should pass the original digital bitstream signal via the HDMI, this should certainly be true for Dolby Atmos as the signal is included in the Dolby TrueHD signal which the Oppo spec sheet says can be output.

Edit: In addition the May 2016 Realiser A16 Q&A the following is stated:

Q4:  How do you watch movies with Dolby Atmos, DTS‐X or Auro‐3D sound tracks?
A4:  These sound tracks are decoded inside the A16. If the movie is a disc then connect any Blu‐ray player, PS4, or Ultra BD player to the A16 using HDMI. If it is being streamed then connect the settop to the A16 using HDMI. Then connect the A16 HDMI out to your TV. In the A16 menu, load a 7.1.4ch PRIR file, select the HDMI input and decoding  will begin automatically. If the movie is 4k then use HDMI input 1 for best refresh rates. 

 

[462429]

The Oppo should pass the original digital bitstream signal via the HDMI, this should certainly be true for Dolby Atmos as the signal is included in the Dolby TrueHD signal which the Oppo spec sheet says can be output.

Edit: In addition the May 2016 Realiser A16 Q&A the following is stated:

Q4:  How do you watch movies with Dolby Atmos, DTS‐X or Auro‐3D sound tracks?
A4:  These sound tracks are decoded inside the A16. If the movie is a disc then connect any Blu‐ray player, PS4, or Ultra BD player to the A16 using HDMI. If it is being streamed then connect the settop to the A16 using HDMI. Then connect the A16 HDMI out to your TV. In the A16 menu, load a 7.1.4ch PRIR file, select the HDMI input and decoding  will begin automatically. If the movie is 4k then use HDMI input 1 for best refresh rates. 

Thank you, NigelJ, now it seems to be confirmed that both BD player and Ultra BD player can deliver Dolby Atmos etc.bitstreams to the Realiser  

 

[esimms86]

OK, so I get it. HDMI, even though said by some to be more prone to jitter, is still preferred over sending files already digitally converted to analog to the A16/A8 for further digital processing. So I can look into putting my now superfluous exasound e28 multichannel DAC up for sale. Thanks for the informative replies.
 
Esau

 

[dsperber]

  OK, so I get it. HDMI, even though said by some to be more prone to jitter, is still preferred over sending files already digitally converted to analog to the A16/A8 for further digital processing. So I can look into putting my now superfluous exasound e28 multichannel DAC up for sale. Thanks for the informative replies.
 
Esau

Up to you, but if you can re-purpose your DAC for 2-channel use why not feed the Realiser OPTICAL OUTPUT to your DAC, and then from the DAC to you headphone/amp setup (via XLR?).
 
The Realiser has its own built-in DAC for RCA/3.5mm headphone output but doesn't have XLR outputs as your DAC likely does.  Using the Realiser's still-digital optical 2-channel output option lets you use your own presumably higher-quality DAC.