Nevertheless, I bet that if you were to do some gain structure measurements, the problem could turn out to be in some other area than the 950. I've done literally thousands of measurements for noise, distortion etc on audio equipment with lab instruments over the years - the 950 as it now stands is actually very quiet in a properly calibrated system at more than ear-against-the-tweeter distances (a totally unrealistic test). If it weren't quiet enough, I would not be using it since I am probably less tolerant of noise than anybody else, and certainly have speakers that are the "worst case" in revealing noise in upstream components. Read some of the posts I did when the 950 was first released - I slammed it for it's lack of meeting specs and it's audible noise in my system.

Also, keep in mind that some preamps have a DAC muting feature which cuts all output when the digital to analog converters are not processing a signal - this gives a false "silent" noise floor that can be easily mistaken for less self-noise than when the preamp is being operated normally with signal. The only way to tell the actual noise contribution under normal operating conditions for sure is to un-mute the DACs in the absense of signal, somehting that is not easily done by end users.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited August 05, 2004).]