I measured the original 950 in my lab, and it failed in the noise category. This ultimately led to the "blue dot" 950 we have today, where this problem was fixed once and for all. It met all it's other specs.

I don't think you need to pick a "neutral" 3rd party to do objective tests on specifications - I was prepared to love the 950, but wasn't afraid to point out a fault in the unit. There are lengthy threads on this forum about these tests.

As for sound, the newer 950 (the current "blue dot") does sound a bit warmer than the original unit through it's internal DACs. The CD bypass passed my A/B tests for neutrality while playing 24 bit masters from my digital audio workstation, comparing directly from the workstation verses through the 950 by instaneous switching on a lab grade preamp/switcher.

It's commendable that Outlaw stuck through the lengthy process of tracking down the noise problem and fixing it right. They sent me a prototype of the new unit for me to test, and it passed.