If I have a speaker system made up of active speakers, could I hook the 950 directly to speakers usings thier internal amps? Thanks

As long as the speakers have unbalanced inputs, i.e. RCA connectors, you should be fine.

Even if they have balanced inputs like powered Genelecs you should be fine with the proper adapters. I recommend Ebtech Hum Eliminators for this application.

I hooked up 3 Mackie and 2 Alesis powered monitors (and the LFM-1 which is, of course powered, too) directly to the 950. No problems except, since the 950 doesn't have balanced outputs one must wire the system with unbalanced RCA-RCA cables and not use the xlr inputs on the speakers. XLR outs on the next 950 is something I'd like to see.

Jay

You're not missing anything by not having balanced XLR outputs. If you don't specifically need the noise rejection ability of a balanced connection (and 99.999% of home theaters don't), having the extra circuitry necessary to produce the electronically balanced signal can actually lead to degredation of the audio signal. Simpler is definately better when it comes to an audio signal path (or any electronic signal path fo that matter).

Does anybody know if analogue signals coming out of 950 are compatible with integrated tube amps? Or, will it cause considerable degradation compare to analogue signals going from the source component directly to integrated amp?

Thanks.

I assume you are talking about stereo music listening only here - if so...

The 950's output signal levels, impedance etc are all compatable with tube or solid state amplifiers - either integrated or not. In any signal path, simpler is always better, so unless you want to use the DACs in the 950, you probably would be better off running the CD player's analog output directly to your integrated tube amp's "aux" input. Although the 950 doesn't necessairly degrade the audio signal, there's really no justification for running a signal through it unless you need the DACs, bass management etc. I just prefer to not run a signal through more electronics than necessary to get the job done.

For movie playback, the 950 would of course be used as a pre/pro and you could run the left and right outputs to an unused "aux" input of your integrated tube amp. This way you would have two signal paths - one for movies, and one for stereo music only.