I finished setting up the 950 the other night. I was surprised how easy it was to get everything plugged in. I am using it to power two zones eliminating three boxes in the process. ...that was the main purpose for getting it. I took my Yamaha DSP-A3090 and tuner and another old Yammie receiver out of my rack.

The main question I have has to do with levels. I was using both yammies as processors sending the signal to a pair of monoblocks for zone two and 5-channel amp for zone one. Why is the signal so much quieter on the 950? I have to turn the 950 up to -15 to get a good loud sound out of it for movies and listen to my Audiotron (MP3 over ethernet) at -20to -25. I'm not used to having to turn my processors up this high to get moderately loud sound.

I don't want people to think I'm complaining too much. I have NO reason to turn it up past 0. -15 is fine for most movies and I still can turn it up to 0 if the mood arises.

I am just curious why this is the case? Why, with nothing else changed, does the source signal strength seem to have decreased by putting the 950 in the mix?

Second question has to do with the remote and zone two. Is there an easy way to set up a second remote for downstairs and control the multi-zone volume, source and mute? At this point, I feel the only option is to hook up a small LCD TV downstairs so I can see the OSD so I can see what I'm doing.

Regarding hiss, I have a slight hiss. After the superbowl, I will probably send mine back to get this fixed. Other than that, I am loving this unit. I agree with what others have posted about this unit. It isn't perfect, but for the money, I have no serious complaints.

Bill