I wrote a while back, on Sept 6:
Quote:

Got my replacement this evening. I think the Outlaws are nice to let us compare our original 950 to the new red-dot 950. In my case, they are allowing me to compare those two and also an intermediate unit they sent in mid June. I have to return two (two of the three) very soon, so I'm frantically comparing all three. There's the original 950 (circa early May), and the intermediate hiss-fixed 950 (circa mid June), and lastly the red-dot hiss-fixed 950 (from today, early September).

My initial impression is the original 950 and the red-dot 950 sound similar. The red-dot 950 won't crank as loud. But the intermediate 950 from mid June sounds different (less harsh).

I originally thought the hiss level with the red dot 950 might have meant I had a defective one, but Outlaw swapped it for a new red dot and the hiss sounds about the same.

Here are the differences I hear in the sound between the original 950, the mid June fix, and the red dot version. In terms of hiss, the red dot version hisses more than the mid-June version. The red dot hisses about the same as the original 950, but the hiss frequency (in kHz) seems to be a different hiss frequency. In terms of dynamics and sound depth between the 3 units, there are probably differences. But the differences are real subtle. There are a few functional differences (such as with the OSD and the volume level) between the original and rd 950 that have been well documented elsewhere.

For those who may have wondered what I decided: well, I kept the red dot and sent the other two back to Outlaw. If it was based on sound alone I probably would have kept the mid-June intermediate fix version, but the sound differences are minor: they all sound more alike than different. I didn't want to keep the mid-June unit because it was probably a one-of-a-kind design.

I kept the red dot since it is newer and may have newer processing code and as Merc and others have said, it may have a higher resale value. The last point is probably moot in my case since I usually keep components a very very long time and I'm not planning on selling my 950 anytime soon. I want to say, again, that the Outlaws are fantastic people for allowing all owners of the original 950 to compare their old 950 to the red dot 950 version in their home, and to decide for themselves which 950 to keep.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited September 19, 2002).]