Lena- Most of the comments on the 950's hiss are useful and meaningful. In a lot of cases, people are directly comparing the hiss in the 950 to a previous component too.

The hiss in my 950 is volume independent. Don't matter none if I have the volume set at +10 dB or -50 dB.

The hiss from all of my speakers is evident out to about 2 feet. I do not have to put my ear up against the tweeter and turn my head just so to hear it. For my rear center, the distance is 4 ft. That impedes into my listening position.

Others have posted than at normal listening volumes, they can hear hiss out to 10 - 12 ft. That is probably more rare, but I've personally never heard of any other component (except for a malfunctioning one) where the hiss was that bad.


[This message has been edited by Kevin C Brown (edited November 06, 2002).]