The greatest inconsistency in levels, in my situation, is not exhibited as I change sources with the 950, but as I change ‘channels’ on digital cable. The cable company in my area is techno-poor – little effort toward quality in several respects. Even when remaining on a single channel, the local commercial inserts sometimes start off with high-level, overdriven distortion and take twenty seconds or so before some automated level-averaging equipment brings the level down. Then when the system returns to the network feed, the audio is severely low until a similar twenty seconds as elapsed for the level to increase again. This is not the only audio problem the cable company delivers, and there are other issues as well. Being the ‘only game in town’ provides little motivation for the company to do any better.

While having individual channel input level adjustments may have some benefit, the 950 simply delivers great quality and features at a great price.

If I had one or two analog sources that were consistently delivering levels high enough to make changing to a source an irritation because of sudden increases in volume, I might insert appropriate in-line attenuation as needed. Certainly I wouldn’t spend hundreds more on a processor just to gain the input level adjustments, or give up on some of what the 950 does best, especially when comparatively inexpensive attenuation is an option.


[This message has been edited by bestbang4thebuck (edited January 22, 2004).]