When I turned the TV back on during CD Music play I could see that the audio button on the remote had kicked the playback out of "Stereo" mode.
That was my fear - just the HDMI communication to the TV is enough to make some changes to the audio settings.
I hope this example helps explain why there are so many "audio myths" about what works and does not work. As an engineer I always look for a root cause when something does not do what is expected. Like when you change a cable and it is like a magic veil is lifted from the sound - you can either assign the observation to the cable or you can conclude something is overall not right about how the equipment is fundamentally functioning together.