With a suggestion from Dan Wright (Modwright) and this thread I was able to solve my Oppo 205 issues simply. It's strange how even when the Sony television was off and the only connection between the Oppo and TV was through a Marantz 8802, also powered off, I would still get the drop out in sound. So far the simplest solution was pulling the hdmi cord from the back of the Oppo. I haven't tried the other solutions on here...but thanks to all for the investigation and advice....
Interesting HDMI Problem: OPPO UDP-205
I have a McIntosh MX122, OPPO UDP-205, and a Sony Bravia OLED. The OPPO is connected to the MX122 through both an HDMI connection (BluRay "in") and RCA patch cables (CD "in") so that I can use the OPPO DACs for listening to audio CDs.
The Sony is connected to the MX122 through the Monitor 1 output.
I've been having intermittent audio dropouts when using the analog connection to listen to audio CDs on the UDP-205. I've finally traced the problem to the Sony Bravia. The Sony implementation of Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) is called "Bravia Sync."
In the Bravia Sync menu, Sony does not provide an "OFF" setting. They have "Enable" and...nothing to turn CEC "OFF." What they have you do is delete the HDMI equipment list from the Sony CEC sub-menu. This does NOT turn CEC "OFF" - it simply hides the expanded CEC menu as you no longer have an equipment list to control, while leaving the CEC feature / circuit active.
The CEC is active even when the Sony is turned "OFF," because, in reality - the Sony is on standby and only the screen has been turned off. The electronics are still active because the Sony can be programmed to automatically turn itself "ON" when it senses a different piece of equipment turn on through the CEC / HDMI circuit.
What happens with the Sony turned "ON" or "OFF" is that the Sony constantly looks for equipment through the HDMI connection. It's randomly looking for a friend and sending out a handshake signal. This disrupts the UDP-205 as it's processing audio through its DACs and it momentarily times out to send a "Yeah stupid, I'm still here" response back to the Sony.
Haven't quite figured out where to go from here...as I don't have a resolution to the problem - but, I thought this might help someone else if they're having the same type of problem.