I hooked up my new 950 and 7100 over the weekend. I ordered on a Monday and on Thursday the 7100 arrives but it took the 950 until the following Monday to arrive. I was told the 7100 ships out of California but the 950 ships out of Massachusetts.

Monday night, I hooked everything up only to have DVD player issues. I did some quick research and purchased a new DVD player. It arrived on Friday just in time for the weekend. I finished the reinstall Friday night. I used my Radio Shack sound meter to calibrate the levels. It was quite easy to do with the 950. I started listening on Saturday morning. I did not notice on Saturday any issues on burn in. Out of the box, the 950/7100 sounded better compared to old Onkyo. I spent Saturday playing different DVDs that I am familiar with the content and I must say that with each hour of use the 950/7100 performance got better. By the end of Saturday I was very impressed. I would concur with previous posts that the sound field is very detailed and full. I am running 7.1 and the Cirrus Logic seems to do a fine job on deriving the back channel. The 7100 drives my KEF Center and Fronts with easy. My axiom surrounds perform quite well with the 7100.

The only negatives so far and these are quite minor is that there is no trim adjustment for the 950 inputs. My CD player signal is really hot compared to my DVD player and satellite receiver. I just have to remember to lower the volume a bit before switching to the CD player. Also, with my DISH DVR the 950 reanalyzes the audio signal when ever I finish hopping through commercials. The 950 signal analysis takes a second or two and so there is no audio for a second to two at the end of the commercial hopping. Both are pretty minor for the sound clarity and quality I am receiving. Neither would have stopped me from purchasing the 950.

Overall, I am really impressed with sound quality and features that the 950/7100 offers. The 950 is simple to configure and operate. Before I purchased, I was concerned about he the lack of Dolby PLIIx in the 950 but the cirrus logic surround seems to be an acceptable compromise for my listening tastes. I was also concerned about the power of the 7100 at a 100watts per channel compared to my Onkyo at 120 watts. But as far as I can tell the 7100 out performs my Onkyo.

So I guess you can say there is another happy outlaw, outwest.