I've made several posts without any replies. Presumably this is because either my comments are not worth a reply, or "several posts" alone is not enough (I note that, despite the impressive total volume, the forum seems to be dominated by a relatively small number of individuals). Nonetheless I shall press on in the perhaps vain hope of contributing.

Facts: my 950 (received about 3 weeks ago after a comparatively short wait-list period) has, to my ears, the infamous "hissy-fit", yet I am still VERY satisfied with it. (On the negative side, I WILL say that based on this forum, the company seemingly has failed to solve the problem and seemingly went back into production anyway after a much-publicized halt). [digression: Could it be that the real fix is too expensive? Or that their Pac-Rim suppliers are too incapable??]

To answer those who may think I was "looking" for the hissy-fit: (1) OUTLAW FOLKS PLEASE READ! this forum, with its warts-and-all approach was key to my decision to try a mail-order unit that I could not audition - had I listened to the unit straight out of the box without warning, I without doubt would have returned it; (2) the hiss, compared with my other equipment, is very noticeable and rather objetionable for music-only but rarely noticeable within the signals from the typical digital movie track (low-fi compared with well-recorded music, higher average sound pressure levels, and less fequent isntances of "silence").

Why am I still satisfied? Frankly, low expectations to begin with. My background is music, not home theater. I and my family have only become interested in "home theater" with the shift from VCR to DVD. Being a business consultant by trade, and a technical analyst by avocation, I have spent about 18 months of fitfullly available free time researching my options. It became painfully clear to me, at an early stage of my investigation, that standards (IMHO both objective and subjective) in the home theater side of the home audio business lag woefully behind standards in the music-reproduction side. To my ears (and may I say here that I am a music lover, not an equipment lover), the highly rated home theater speakers systems such as Axiom, Paradigm and lower-rated systems such as Definitive Tech, are absolute junk when it comes to reproducing stereo music.

Given this opinion, when I decided to add the digital multi-speaker capability to our system for the purpose of watching movies, I knew that I would keep my actual music system (comprising the so-called "main" left and right front speakers, and a sub-woofer) intact and would only utilize the added movie-system capability for movie-watching. When we listen to music, the 950 is not even on; the path depends completely on my Crown-brand stereo pre-amp and bi-amplicification.

Just for curiosity, I tested the 950 on stereo music reproduction and found it (as expected) very lacking - but I'm not disappointed because this isn't the purpose for which I purchased it.

In terms of a home-theater multi-channel pre-amp, hissy-fit or not I still think the 950 is currently the best price/performance ratio on the market. Based on actual listening sessions at stores (and we all know those limitations) the Adcom is IMHO absolute junk (among other deficiencies, especially lack of component video) and still more expensive, the Rotel is competitive but no better and +$400, the Anthem and equivalent are mega-bucks and do not audibly out-perform on the fundamental home theater stuff. If cost is truly no object, buy MacIntosh and you might actually get a unit that performs well in both worlds, but I'm not in that league.