What I believe is happening is the audio format is either changing (such as at commercials) or even being interrupted (signal loss to the cable box) - the 950's signal acquisition time is a bot on the long side (up to a couple seconds), even after the cable box does it acquisition after a break-up. You could use analog audio and see if the problem remains - if it is still objectionable, I'd contact the cable company and make sure the signal strength at your box was up to spec.

The 1070 or 970 would have a shorter signal acquisition time as I understand, so assuming the cable box isn't having problems the 970 could help. It'll probably be a while before anything with HDMI v1.3 comes out (and at this point HDMI v1.1 support for a new product is a dead-end, even though it would take care of most applications just fine) - here\'s the word from the boss on why it's just not time yet for an HDMI Outlaw.

For what it's worth, a DVI-to-HDMI cable doesn't have any detrimental effect on video, and the only audio formats that HDMI offers over coaxial or optical are DVD-A, SACD (HDMI v1.2), and the the new HD formats. My HDMI FAQ give some more details.