Well I took delivery of my 950/770 combo just yesterday (my first foray into the world of separates), fully hooked up, tweaked and calibrated (well, we much as you can do in just one day).
Right away I could hear hiss (running Klipsch RF3s (mains), RC3II (Front Center), RS3s (L/R Surrounds), RC3, (Rear Center)) and an audible 'hum'.

I hooked the 950 to the 770 with plain old audio connects, the kind you get free with new gear (low end gear only it seems), anyway, I could hear the hum from the 'left side' only, I then swapped out those cables for other 'generic' cables, problem solved, hum was gone, hiss reduced.

Speakers set to small about 8ft from the sweet spot, I can hear hiss, it's not HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS like you would get if you cranked up the 950 with no signal but audible nonetheless. Moreover, I can hear hiss emanating predominantly from my side surrounds (I’ve read this elsewhere as well).

Today I received some interconnects from Bettercables (thanks Brad!) so I will not be using the generic ones, so I would imagine that given the drastic change in swapping out the generic ones for more generic one I should have better results with the new interconnects. Then again, maybe not.

The soundstage is much fuller, smoother is the best way to describe it, the SVS has much more oompf now (even set to the exact settings (-5) I used on the 1050) and the (re) addition of my rear channel in titles like ATOC and LOTR:EE sounds great and it can definitely go LOUDER

I’m going to do a tad more tweaking this weekend and watch a few films that I know that have ‘quiet’ scenes prior to ‘loud’ scenes to see if it’s bothersome.


[This message has been edited by Xen (edited November 22, 2002).]