I have seriously mixed emotions about the 950. Basically it seems to be not as good as the higher priced competition, and so rather than being a fantastic value it's more like it's worth what it costs. Nothing wrong with that, but that's not how it was expected to be, at least by me.

And in that case, I'm strongly leaning towards either the Rotel 1066 with an optional Sony P9K (as Merc has with his 950) or maybe waiting a bit and looking at the next B&K Ref.

Anytime I've bought 'good enough' instead of what I want I've either upgraded to what I wanted soon after or, if the 'good enough' was costly, I've put up with it but not enjoyed it much. For me, I'd rather stick with the 1050 as preamp (cheap as possible) and get what I want later rather than blow money 'all the way up' to where I want to end up.

It's OK - I have lots of other issues to iron out on this HT setup anyway, so I'm taking a wait and see stance on this. If the 950 shakes out to be a real bargain as I originally expected I'll jump in, or maybe get a clone. But if things keep spiralling for the 950 I'll be glad I'm not the pioneer.