I have ended up the installation of the 8-QS hooked up to an HDSP9652 by four ADAT into my analogue audiophile multichannel array
I usually rate the audio equipment as being good very good :-) excellent exceptional ultimate :-O
I expected my RME equipment to apply at level and from now on it fits the bill, and stands at the right place among others of my home hi end audio equipment
At first, I started with the QS being self clocked to ADAT's and got some schrinked stereo image and depth, such a radio like music, not my expectation to be honest
Then I used to sync it with the HDSP word clock, wired with RG59 (75 ohms type) basic video cable - nothing esoteric here - and much important I switched on the 75 ohms load resistor at the QS back panel to provide an overall low impedance line
what a change!
Welcome now to the great sound, deep and wide, neutral, cleanful, well contoured voices...bla bla
Whatever cassettes, vinyl, CD's sampled at 16/44 up to high definition DVD-A audio at 24/96 the results are of excellent quality without any noticeable difference in the focus we have in the audiophile world of complicated people
The package of utilities that comes with is just amazing and useful for any "on the fly" recording and audio management
But in charge of this, is that one should keep constantly an eye on what's going on with the mixing and routing setup, Digicheck monitoring and so on, due to the extreme versatility provided for stereo up to multi channel configurations
The use of its MIDI remote panel is a piece of cake and highly recommended, in contrary to the rotary knob and I/O's matrix display -not that fun and a confusing process to access the setup area needed-
The weak point here comes from the 8-QS ADAT sockets, where only low cost and plastic made lightpipes can hook without getting out when pulling on it
I've been obliged to change my former - quite rigid - lightpipes to more flexible ones, but their head still do not latch properly into the sockets, while it connects properly at the HDSP 9652 side...so I have clamped them to the plate to avoid it getting out by the pulling force or vibrations ed:
I was a bit aware about the TRS jacks, but the Neutrik plugs I use at cable end are mating correctly with the sockets here
I would have quoted level four  with better quality ADAT sockets, I/O's & AES featuting XLR gold plated connectors, LCD display housed into 2U box -same as DMC 842-, heavy rotary knob and........dark grey/black or champagne front panel finishing
However, the core audio is of such a quality that one can now forget it for a while and focus on other issues further on
Kind regards,

Pierre