You can if you configure your Oppo to send LPCM over HDMI.
I don't think the A16 supports DSD, so a conversion to PCM somewhere is inevitable, the Oppo can handle that for you. How do you connect your A16 to your receiver? [Snip]
I would have assumed that the magnetic tracking should work everywhere in any orientation. The optical tracking requires line of sight.
Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I've double checked tonight. With the Oppo set to output PCM for SACD and PCM over HDMI and a direct HDMI connection to the A16 (no receiver between the two) I only get two channels of information on SACD playback even though the Oppo displays 5.0. Similarly, with Chicago II on BR, the Oppo displays DTS-MA 4.0 but only two channels of audio are received by the A16. (Note: if I set the Oppo to output Bitstream, there is no audio at all with this DTS stream and it will only play the Stereo layer.) The Oppo does properly decode MLP Lossless, Atmos and Dolby Master surround so, unless something changes in the firmware, I think that's where my collection divides into playable/unplayable.
I do NOT use the HDMI pass-through of the A16 when using my Oppo 203. The A16 is simply fed from HDMI2-out (audio-only), and the A16 is powered on when I want to use my headphones.
HDMI1-out of the 203 goes to my AVR, to provide video-only when the A16 is powered on, and then HDMI-out of the AVR goes to the TV. When the A16 is powered off HDMI1-out carries both audio and video to the AVR, so that the speakers (managed by the AVR) are heard.
The 203 is configured Setup Menu -> Audio output setup -> HDMI audio format. For all non-Atmos multi-channel (e.g. 5.1 or 7.1, lossy or lossless, Dolby or DTS) audio (either from a disc played by the Oppo, or from an HDMI external input source feeding the Oppo such as HDTV DVR or Roku etc.) you might as well set HDMI audio format to LPCM. This lets the Oppo perform all audio decoding upstream to the A16 for any audio format (including DTS) and feed 2.0/5.1/7.1 audio as LPCM to the A16 (via HDMI2-out of the Oppo when you have the A16 powered on). This will be handled by the A16 through a "PCM room" and will work perfectly. When the A16 is powered off the decoded multi-channel LPCM audio will be fed along with video through HDMI1-out of the Oppo to your AVR, so that you can listen to multi-channel sound through the multiple speakers managed by the AVR..
For Atmos output from a disc played by the Oppo, reconfigure Audio Output Setup -> HDMI audio format to BITSTREAM. Now the audio output from HDMI2-out of the Oppo will carry the still-decoded Dolby Atmos audio to the A16, where it will be handled by the A16 through an "Atmos room". If the A16 is powered off the Atmos BITSTREAM audio will be sent along with video out of HDMI1-out of the Oppo, to your AVR for decoding there.
Thanks for the very full response, of which this is only the first half (I don't use Roku or Apple TV). In particular I note that I need to turn the Oppo from LPCM to Bitstream to watch Atmos, which would have had me scratching my head tomorrow (since Atmos worked perfectly today but I turned to PCM while testing Eich's suggestions.
Note that my Oppo is a 105 so it may not do everything that your 203 does.
I currently have my receiver plugged into my Oppo and my Oppo plugged into my TV, so I can watch any source selected in the receiver through the A16 with the receiver off. The one snag is that to watch something from the Oppo with sound on the speakers I have to feed the sound back to the receiver optically, which means simple stereo. Maybe I'll try your setup but after two days of testing every cable every whichway I'm loathe to move everything again right now.