the first thing that crossed my mind in the comparison, is that (from memory, correct me if i'm wrong) the anthem has internal phase and timing adjustments. this would definitely lead to a description of flat and incoherent if the anthem was in phase with the speakers and the 950 was not. (see kcb's thread 'the 950 and 5.1 vs analog/coax bass management and phase'). if so, and kcb's findings on the subject are correct, simply playing a dvd-a or sacd disc could have revealed a marked difference. you might borrow a sacd player and without touching anything else in your setup, see what you hear.

this leads to the second thought i have and alluded to in my 1st post above: a cd is not a good test of the 950's dacs and doesn't serve to isolate any specific problem. i would try all the formats (once any possible phase and timing questions are settled), starting with eagles "hell freezes over", then a dts cd like steely dan's "gaucho", then dts-es cd "studio voodoo" or, don henly's "end of innocence". of course, as i stated earlier, dvd-a/sacd should be auditioned to test 5.1 bypass.

it's very coincidental to me that the only speakers you've heard so far are the s312s and dynaudios. i recently gave my custom built dynaudio 3 ways to a family member, as i'm building new speakers. in the meanwhile, i am using 4 s312s. i know that when calibrating the system, the dyns had to be 4db hotter as they are much less efficient than the jbls. don't get me wrong, they sound superb, they just need more juice to perform. the jbl s312s, i find, are excellent speakers for the money. a tad harsh in the upper mids, but very detailed and certainly not at all muddled or mushy. this is one reason i think there is a problem somewhere in your setup.

there may well have been a whole other problem or set of problems in the comparison which coincidentally seemed to verify poor performance at home.

try the suggestions. believe me, the 950 is a keeper. my agenda is that you enjoy it as much as i am (and save a small boatload of dough in the process). try all possible solutions, up to and including exchanging your 950 for another one. remember...these new prepros ain't our old stereo preamps. they are extremely complex and this one warrants a bit of detective work before sending it back. just my thoughts.