i wonder what would have become of analog tape recording systems, had hiss been such a big issue.

it was dealt with in various ways (noise reduction, gating, etc.), each method with it's compromise of the original sound.

marketing types' demand that cd be silent is what screwed the format up in the beginning.

there is nothing wrong with some noise (hiss), if it is constant in amplitude and doesn't effect the sound reproduction. any analog to analog or analog to digital format hisses. to remove the hiss is a compromise.

studio doctoring is the culprit. all natural occurrences of sound events are filled with background noise. studios eliminate all natural background sound and replace it with selected, synthesized sounds. music and soundtrack.

my theory is that hiss is acceptable in analog formats because they are the closest thing to the natural sound being copied and therefore, pleasing and relaxing to listen to. digital reproduction, on the other hand, has some underlying irritation to humans that leads to a natural curiosity to find what isn't right about it.

my opinion is that the unit that hisses is the best at reproduction of the source. all the high-end setups i listen to exhibit hiss, except the ones that gate it. this is no doubt why some 'units' hiss more than others, as some people have better power, cables, speakers, amps, etc. not being an electrical engineer, i don't have a clue as to why that is the case...it simply is. the hissing setups also sound the best. most revealing is probably the better word.

if thine hiss offends thee, gate it. gating is fairly cheap and easy to incorporate into any system. it will eliminate hiss (and everything else) during quiet times, but, 2 things: 1., it will compromise sound and 2., since no one listens in an anechoic chamber, our ears will point us to the next offender in the long list of background noises from myriad sources.

i think the 950 is so much better than 'not bad'. outlaw squeezed every drop of reproductive power out of the chipset, dacs, wires, cables, etc. some people don't like that. they are used to a muted appliance that hides the various evils of pcm. i wish the hiss were gone...but not at the price of reproduction quality. the dvd-a redo of 'dark side of the moon' had better start off with tape hiss or i'm throwin' it out the window.