As a veteran of many an HT forum, I've been reading posts recommending SPF meters for quite a while. I realized they were probably helpful but put off buying one until yesterday.

WOW!! The difference on my 950 was as dramatic as going from mono to stereo if not more so.

I always trusted my ear and had big problems conceptually setting up matched speakers to different levels - but I tried it anyway since I already invested the $39.95 at RatShack.

The sound went from decent to incredible at a single stroke.

The reason I'm bothering to write this is that posts I've read before stress the importance of metering your speakers. But maybe they weren't emphatic enough for my thick skull.

Put simply, if you haven't metered your speakers yet no matter how good your ear - you're not hearing close to what your system's capable of. That goes for the 950, and I'm sure all other multichannel systems.

If you haven't already, just do it and expect to be impressed!