Has anyone been doing this w/ their remote?....

Since the 950 pauses for a while to reaquire the audio signal (sadly, a little longer than my cheap Denon Rec. takes, but not too bad)...

I cup my hand over the IR end of the remote so I can switch between diff. components I want to control without the 950 switching it's inputs.

Or for my wife who just wants to use the remote to control the TV in the morning... If she doesn't cup her hand over the remote when she hits the tv button, the 950 turns on when she doesn't want anything but the TV running. She pretty 'remote-impared' so she doesn't dig this much.

Pretty annoying 'cuz I didn't have to do that w/ my old rec. (which also has an lcd screen so you know what the remote is currently controlling) , but it's not too big a deal and seems to work better as it becomes more of a habit to do.

I don't like the small volume control buttons, or that nearly all the buttons are tiny rectangles or identical circles, and that the Power button is right above the frequently used Mute -haven't turned anything off accidentally yet, but it'll happen some time I'm sure.

Oh yeah, and I touched the buttons on the face of the 950 today -for the first time. Just didn't even think of it before I guess?

I have to say these buttons -like others have said before- stick out A LOT. Wow! And they're VERY flimsy IMO! I'm afraid to touch them again! I'll seriously avoid it -they're that cheap feeling.

My low end Denon has nice tight solid metal buttons and volume dial like all Denon's do.

RAF, you have a high end Denon, and I didn't remember you ever mentioning that the 950's face is far more flimsy than your Denon? Was that irellevant to you, or do you think I'm wrong about the comparsion?
To me that seems like one of the little things you guys could've mentioned in between the praise of the 950's sound -if you were wondering why some people took some of the beta reviews with a grain of salt.

Not thrilled with Outlaw's own cables just barely fitting into the preouts either. The 950's preout spacing seems to be the typical spacing, BUT since their cables are not typical thickness they should've went with wider spacing IMO. Probably a more costly option 'cuz it's not 'standard'.

Someone mentioned that they liked how the connections are all gold plated... The $200 POS Aiwa rec. that I had for ~a week before I dumped it onto someone else had gold connections. It's very typical, and the plating on mine looked slightly cracked on several inputs. I'm sure it's fine though, just not any sign of better than typical quality.

Awesome cables by the way. Much better than typical in their price range.

Better the 950's spacing be changed than the cables be made thinner -though I'm sure neither will be altered.

I guess most of the money's on the inside. Which is pretty much what I'd prefer from a value targeted item like this, so I'm very happy overall so far.

"Tremendously good stereo and HT sound".

I think you'd have to get into outboard DACs or very high end pre/pros to gain a significant improvement. There's better, but in most cases it'll cost you big!

And by that I mean NOT determined through blind or double blind testing.

If you can't easily tell the diff. in sound quality between to vastly diff. priced components, you need to just buy the cheaper one and smile..., NOT do some kind of blind test to 'gather further data'.

And if the components sound the same and are close in price (which the 950 has nothing to compare to beyond outdated/used pre/pros) then you can just decide based on features.

Now where's my universal disc player? Don't wait for digital outs. Analog isn't a crime. Put your own cables where your mouths are.
Can't they pass a mint SACD or DVDA signal to my new 950??