Well, now that I've got the 950, 755, and 200's up and running I can tell you what I had before it was a 5 year old Kenwood vr-209.... I bought it right when I got out of school and just "needed" something that could do dolby digital.... it's rated at I think 100x5 and wasn't terribly bad....

The 950 and friends combo is absolutely awesome... I've watched several movies with it so far and I'm noticing lots of things I've missed before.. like in Monsters Inc. there are a lot of scenes where the "factory" noise is evident with the 950, I never heard it with the kenwood... I'm watching LOTR right now and dialog is far cleaner than before..

I recently upgraded my front speakers to an older pair of Magnepans.. That change was like wiping the condensation off a mirror... this change would be like looking at the same mirror, but with sunlight instead of a 20 watt bulb

That pretty well describes the movie modes (I'm still only using 5.1 until I can find some speakers that both my wife and I will approve of to hang on the back wall...)

Music is wonderful... there is so much more detail and everything is so clear.. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with this yet.. but one obvious change is that on Direct TV's audio channels, I didn't think they were CD quality with the kenwood (in stereo mode) with the 950 they sound like cd quality.. absolutely awesome (this probably has a lot to do with the DAC since with both the signal was from the optical out on the reciever)

So with less than 24 hours of ownership I'm very happy

Welcome to the 950 club. It's a happy place. I love mine also. Very nice indeed. DPLII on those DirecTV channels should make you happy.