Well, to paraphrase soundhound, on his very sensitive setup the hiss went from 6' to < 1' if I understood correctly. This seems to be typical and is IMO more the sort of performance to expect. This is all second or more hand though, so if you really want the scoop I'd look back a few pages and get the live reports.

Charlie's summary does seem consistent with what I have read and what I experienced last night when I connected my new Blue Dot revision. I also experienced sort of a muffled, nasal sound for the first hours of play that seemed to have gone away. My hiss went from 10' at listening positon to 1'. Not bad. As the volume is turned up towards reference the hiss does grow maybe to about 3' or 4'. Still better than the consistent hiss at 10'.

I will post my specs and comments after further testing tonight.

Scott

Good to see you again Merc. Go back and read my post. Mine had hiss before, to the point where I turned my amps down to about 3/4 gain to compensate. Now the amps are all the way up and hiss is nonexistant at loud listening levels, even when within about 6 inches of the tweeter during quiet passages. I have only had it for 2 days, and it is still smoothing out (as I said in the earlier post, I never really thought electronics needed to "break in", but now I have changed my mind). It is very transparent. More
so with the new "blue Dot" because the hiss is gone.
Soundhound must have opened his up because he says the new parts are considerably more "heavy duty" and likens them to parts you find in pro equipment. All I know is that the fix worked for me, and I don't believe my problem was based on speaker efficiency. If anything, my amp may not have been a good match.

The hiss in my system at normal listening levels was reduced by 3/4's. (Out of my worst speaker, went from audible at 4 ft to 1 ft.)

Merc- I saw somewhere you got a Ref 50? Still deciding between the 2? Or did you punt on the 950?

I have a new 950 discovered on my front porch late last night! How exciting. Unfortunatly, I have a heavy paper load and am tied to my computer till its done. Won't get to even unpack the new 950 for days to run it thorough paces. Well at least I have something 'fun' to look forward too!

Guys, what's the scoop on the blue dot with regard to getting 5.1 full range without bass doubling on the 5.1 analog passthrough? Did Outlaw change the 5.1 analog passthrough to be true passthrough for all 6(5.1) channels?

Kevin: I currently have 3 pre/pros in my house... one currently being an unopened, in box, blue dot 950. Should I open it?

Life is full of tough choices...

Merc- 3 pre/pros... I do doubt the double bass problem was fixed. But remember, doesn't exist if you use the 80 Hz analog crossover on the 5.1 inputs. (You could try to email Scott directly to find out I bet.)

Well, I *do* still have my old Sony TA-E9000es too...

Well I have setup my new blue dot rev and must say, job well done. I am even more pleased with it now. Some points I have noticed:

Recalibrated to 75db at a volume setting of -8db per soundhound's suggestion due to the sensitivity of my Klipsh speakers. 101 db mains, 99 center, 98 side and rear surrounds. My original 950 trims were calibrated for 75db with a 00db volume setting. Here is the comparison.

blue dot
LF -10, C -8, RF -10, RS -5, LS -4, SW -12
original
LF -8, C -6, RF -8, RS -8, LS -7, SW-13

As you can see the "free" 8db of gain on my system acutally is about 10db considering I calibrated at -8db and the trims are about 2db less than the original trim.

This results in a much quieter and as some have said revealing 950. My hiss has gome from 10 ft to around 1 ft at volume levels between -34db and around -18db or so. As I approach the reference level, in my case -8db, the hiss does seem to get louder, but only to the point where it is about 2 feet out or so, still an 80% reduction. Wow! Both of these hiss levels are quite comparable to my original Yamaha 2095.

One thing I have noticed is that while everything is calibrated the same, the overall "loudness" of my system at any given volume seems about 8db louder. In other words the "free" gain seems to have both allowed me to calibrate at a lower volume setting while still giving the 950 some "apparent" increase in gain. Definitely double bang for your buck. This may be due in part that with the reduction in hiss, I am "hearing" more of the audio and it seems louder. I did notice I was able to change my +2 Treble setting to 0 and still hear the high end detail I was used to on the original 950. Again, maybe a result of the reduction in background hiss.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with the effor of The Outlaws to resolve this issue, the support from this bulletin board and mostly my new 950 Blue Dot revision.

Now my HT can be used for entertainment not a proving ground.......what a relief!

Good job everyone and thanks,
Scott

Let's hope that when the outlaws decide to design the 950's big brother they hire someone who knows how to design the pre/pro without these issues from the begining rather than hoping that someone happens to be reading the message boards that can tell them how to fix it.

Tons of praise for soundhound for stepping up and helping out with this issue, and equal praise to outlaw for listening.


brianca..



[This message has been edited by brianca (edited January 09, 2003).]