I read a post at the Home Theater Forum yesterday where a member compared his 950 to his Harmon Kardon 520 receiver. He raved about how great the 950 was in HT but felt the 520 to be slightly better in music.
A lot of HK owners say that their products are very musical.

I know everyones taste is different but I was surprised at this because I've also read posts that said how good the 950 was with music as well. I know this isn't a mega dollar processor but I'd like to think that it could perform at least as good if not better than all but the most expensive receivers in music as well as HT.

I own a Sony 777ES. It sounds very good in music and HT. If I'm going to buy a 950 there would have to be some sort of sonic gain to make it worthwhile.

It would be nice to have the 200 watts per channel the 770 offers because you could drive all but the most demanding speakers easily. My 777 is no slouch for power but the 770 would beat it in that area.

So, to get back to my topic, how many of you Outlaw Forum members have been able to compare the 950 with some good receivers? Again I know what one guy hears isn't necessarily the same as another but the more (honest) comparisons we get the easier it is to pull the trigger.

I do recall another HTF post where the member compared the 950 to his Lexicon MC-12. He said the Lexicon sounded slightly better but the 950 was a lot closer than he liked, particularly when you consider the price difference.
I know that's his opinion but at least we can get some idea of just how good the 950 is for the money.

Well, anybody?

Well Bob, I have had my 950 for a whopping 2 days now. I replaced my great 15 yr old NAD receiver. As I posted in my review, I am only running stereo until I can run some speaker cable in-wall this weekend. I have listened to my 950 and a Parasound amp for about 20 hours now. The tuner is not as sensitive as the NAD, but seperation is excellent, with overall FM sound being slightly better than my NAD. My unit is flawlessly quiet. I have no hum or hiss from either speaker at any volume setting from any source other than a faint hiss at ear to speaker and +10 volume. The sound from 2 channel sources is incredible. Music sings from this tandem. My wife notices a difference. I notice a difference, even though I really didn't expect to. I bought the unit for its bass management and surround formats. I am being impressed beyond imagination at its sound. Bass is much more solid and defined. Mids are silky smooth, and highs are crisp. In my other post I wrote that I never really thought I would hear a difference in soundstage, clarity or depth. I was very wrong. I have heard higher priced systems by Rotel, Marantz, and Denon but none sounded as good in their mid-fi store audition rooms as my combo does in my home.

Speakers, the room, and speaker placement have more to do with great sound than the electronics do, but in this 2 channel system, the only thing I changed was my NAD for the seperates. The difference is clearly audible, and I would bet that I could always tell the difference in a double blind test. I don't have a golden ear, but the differences were huge. Perhaps there was a problem with the NAD, but I doubt it. This thing just sounds fantastic!

I just read a post of a HTF member who has a Sony 9000 processor and he says the Outlaw sounds a lot better. I e-mailed him for more info and asked if I could use his answer in my post, here. I'll put it up as soon as I can.

What amplifier was he using with his 950? The amplifier used is going to affect the overall sound with a given set of speakers at least as much as the pre-amp.

When I was started shopping for my current setup about a year ago of the 12+ A/V receivers I demo'd it seemed that the overall sound "quality" in my opinion was pretty linear with the price-tag, I was hauling around my speakers for all these demos too. So the $2500 Pioneer elites sounded quantifiably better than the $500 Yamaha's or HK's. The A/V receivers manufacturers put in "much more decent" amplifiers as the price goes up, but if your going to spend minimum $2k or more on the pre-amp/amp OR receiver setup you should be able to find some separates that do as good, and in most cases better, for your particular ear....the 950 can be a key player in this.

He's still do comparison tests. As I recall, he was using the Sony 9000ES amp. I'm interested in the results myself because I own the 777ES which would sound very similar to the 9000.

Although I tend to think the 950 is better than using a receiver for a pre/pro, not everyone thinks so. I think it depends.

At the end of this
Outlaw thread , a listener says his Kenwood 6070 receiver is as good in HT as his old 950 (he's since sold the 950), but he says the 950 is better in stereo than the Kenwood 6070.