First off, any hiss that I can detect at any position, at any level, and from any speaker, I can attribute to another device in my system other than the 950. (It's usually my analogue equalizers that are the culprit.) The 950 is simply dead quiet.

Since this thread has also touched on calibration (as have others in the Saloon) I've got a bit of a nagging question to ask - especially of Soundhound since I'll use his system as part of the question.

I run fairly efficient speakers across the front - 96dB or so. That's 10dB less than what Soundhound has posted - and probably 5-8dB more than your "average" speaker.

I get an SPL reading of 85dB in my system when I set my 950 to -10dB AND with the front L/R calibration set at -5dB. Without individual gain controls on my amps (well, all but one) how the heck would I ever hope to calibrate for 85dB at a "0" setting" on the 950 - let alone 75dB? There just ain't much more "calibration" level left in the 950 to back off on. If I had Soundhound's speakers I'd be 10dB further away.

I can only conclude that it would take a combination of i) lower efficiency speakers and/or ii) lower set amplifier gain and/or iii) actual power amp gain controls, to be able to hit either 75 or 85dB at a "0" setting on the 950.

Soundhound: can you crank the gain down on your amps to hit these targets? If not, how do you do it?

In any case, hitting 85dB at a "-10" volume setting on my 950 leaves me way more than enough left at the top end (anything beyond -5 to 0 is just way too much for these old ears) and plenty of room to reduce the level to clean background "reading" levels.

Regards.

Jeff Mackwood