I recently made an unbelieveable purchase of a used 950 and a 755. At my cost the 950 was almost a throw away, I only wanted the 755. I had been using a Yamaha V750 Receiver as a preamp with a mix of different power amps. I purchased two M200 B stock amps from Outlaws to completely replace the old power amps. I initially set up my configuration with the V750 as preamp with the Outlaw amps driving 2 NHT ST4s paired with 2 NHT SubOne Subs, and 5 NHT SB3s. I could imediatlely hear the difference the 755 made in the power hungry NHT speakers. After listening to some familiar CDs, HD Movie, and DVD material, I swapped out the V750 with the 950. After going through setup and calibration, I listened to the same material. My ears detected no diference in the sound quality. I do like the Auto set up feature in the V750 and it has PLIIx and I preferred these features over the 950. But since the 950 was the last setup I left it in my system. Is my test scientific, hell no. If I was in your shoes, I would buy the 7100, use the Onkyo as a preamp, if possible and wait for the new Outlaw 7.1 preamp. With that said, the 950 is an excellent preamp, at an excellent price, with excellent sound quality. You will not go wrong by purchasing the 950/7100 combo.