BigJeff, just wondering, did you set all speaker levels for the 950 using a SPL meter or something similar? I agree with what Matthew said regarding the center channel output and would guess the levels were also not correctly set for fronts and the surrounds resulting in "Strange issue #2". The Manual says the output level(s) must be properly matched to insure a correct presentation of multi-channel sources and that this is almost impossible to do by ear. (See page 27 in the 950 Owner's Manual on Channel Calibration) Just a hunch on my part as I have not experienced either of these issues. Also, I am not quite sure what you meant when you said you "Synced both processors to exact same settings"? Thanks for taking the time to compare the two units and post your findings here.