One of the original beta testers for the 950 did some direct comparison between the two. Early this year, he replaced his 950 with a B&K Ref50 (he slightly preferred the music performance of the Ref50 over the 950, but found no difference on DVD's). A year before that, however, he was looking at the 950, Rotel 1066, and Ref30, and at that time I recall that he preferred the 950. Did a little forum search, and back in the summer of 2002, merc posted a few comments regarding the three:
IMO, the 950 is not bright but is detailed and can be revealing if used with other revealing gear. Comparatively, the Rotel is warmer, but not so warm as the Ref 30 which in my opinion is somewhat veiled sounding.
I've already tried out the B&K Ref 30, Rotel 1066, and the Anthem AVM-20, and I still have my 950. The only unit I liked as much/better than the 950 was the Anthem. However, I found that the combination of the 950, Sony P9K and Outlaw ICBM gave me better performance than the Anthem unit for $1000 less.
While I impatiently waited for the 950, I bought a Ref 30 for my HT. I ended up keeping it for 29 days, the maximum, part of which also included my initial ownership of the my initial beta1 950 unit. Compared on that A/B in house ownership, I returned the Ref 30 and kept the no-tuner, beta1, Outlaw 950 unit. The primary reason was due to only the sound of each unit when playing back both movies and music and included the internal DAC system in the sound. In ALL cases I preferred the 950. Then I tried the analog inputted music sources and REALLY favored the 950 to the Ref 30. IMHO, the Ref 30 just sounded more veiled, and less detailed than the 950....YMMV!
Also, the Ref30 and 950 offer some different features. The Ref30 has THX (including THX EX, I believe), whereas the 950 has Pro Logic II, Dolby EX, and DTS Neo:6. The Ref30 has a global fixed crossover, while the 950 has three adjustable crossovers and an analog crossover on the multichannel analog input. Plus a new 950 offers a five-year warranty, while a used Ref30 will have already used up some of its warranty (not sure how long the Ref30's warranty is, but the Ref50 has a five-year warranty).
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