Hiss is hiss.......which in an $900 piece of audio equipment is unacceptable.....PERIOD....maybe its summed hiss which is a lot easier to take than straight hiss... ...I know if I got one it would drive me nuts..........of course that is my problem.

Actually that is not quite true since it varies in intensity and in the individuals ability to hear it at a set distance. Every system has a noise floor. It is a function of all components in the system and is impacted by such parameters as preamp gain and amp input impedance, just to name two.


[This message has been edited by morphsci (edited May 08, 2002).]

morphsci.....i donn't know what mumbo jumbo you're talkin about, BUTTTTTTTTT in my 40 some years of putting together audio sytems, I never tolarted a piece of equipment that I could hear hiss. One of my first big Scott amps (it was almost as big as a 1/2 of a sheet of plywood) well It seemed that big at the time, I took home and returned three units before the fourth was hiss free in the circuits and meet my creteria of hiss free. If the parts are good, you donn't get hiss.PERIODDDDDDDD Just seems strange that this wasn't noticed once again by our "BETA Testers" hhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm????????????

I would also be concerned that the 950 isn't meeting its stated specs for signal-to-noise ratio, digital or analog...

Any feedback from Outlaw yet if this is real or not?

(I mean, it's definately real for the people experiencing it, but could it be that the unit is intrinsically quiet, just more susceptible to stray EM/RF interference maybe?)


[This message has been edited by Kevin C Brown (edited May 09, 2002).]

OK, here's a weird story. With my older Rotel pro-logic pre-amp I was getting a very annoying hiss out of all speakers. I spent hours tracking it down before I thought to disconnect the CATV cable.

That cut out 90% of the hiss immediately. OK so waiting for my 950, I ordered the cable isolator from Polk audio. Well it turned out the 950 came first, and of course I had to plug it in anyway.

Here's the weird thing, even though I know the cable coax creates a buzz/hiss issue, after installing the 950 there was no hiss of any kind! Even sticking my ear to speaker grill - zippo. This totally surprised me since I'd read other posts that said the 950 was more susceptible than usual, and I was expecting the worst.

Now if Polk will just give me my money back..

No mumbo jumbo. In the 45 years that I have been putting together audio systems I have not heard any that did not hiss when you put your ear up to the tweeter (unless of course the tweeter did not have a high enough frequency range. This also includes every system I have listened to at high-end dealers and in the homes of friends. I have also noticed that hissing is very dependent on the quality of the AC. I am glad that you have a hiss free system, or at least think you do.

Exactly. My 950 has a slight his audible hiss about nine inches from the tweeter. Past that, silence. Big deal. I don't listen to full range speakers at high volume from nine inches away. It's still a low noise floor relative to most equipment, including much more expensive equipment.

HT Crazed: That's good news. The original beta 950 had some cable/coax buzz problems was that was quickly corrected. That was at least one problem which beta testing eliminated or at least lessened.

BTW, this past weekend, I listened to a Krell/B&W system and guess what... hiss at the tweeter but not from 2 inches away... just like my 950.

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Take Care,
merc

I installed a Nakamichi CD/preamp in my car. Hooking it up to an A/D/S amp resulted in a lot of hiss. Rather than swapping out amps, like your 40 years of experience would tell you to do, I adjusted the input level of the A/D/S until the hiss was gone. A clear example of level mismatch. As far as the 950 goes, I have used it with 3 different amps (McIntosh MC40, Electrocompaniet AW 100, Adyton Cordis1). Non of these produced any hiss. It is therfore quite plausible that the beta testers had 950/amp combinations that didn't produce any hiss.



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Helge Nylund

I installed a Nakamichi CD/preamp in my car. Hooking it up to an A/D/S amp resulted in a lot of hiss. Rather than swapping out amps, like your 40 years of experience would tell you to do, I adjusted the input level of the A/D/S until the hiss was gone. A clear example of level mismatch. As far as the 950 goes, I have used it with 3 different amps (McIntosh MC40, Electrocompaniet AW 100, Adyton Cordis1). Non of these produced any hiss. It is therfore quite plausible that the beta testers had 950/amp combinations that didn't produce any hiss.



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Helge Nylund