I had/have the same problem. After speaking to Scott (nearly a year ago, as I recall) he said there may be just a little hiss present, but it should be inaudible unless you are truly near the speaker or the volume is up extremely high and the music goes silent. Mine was worse, but still not obvious to most people. I bought the Monster HTS5000, which made the hiss practically disappear. I honestly have to be within 1 foot or so to hear it now. I think that was the hiss Scott was talking about.

I agree that the majority of the problems seem to be power related, not 1050 related, but even in the perfect situation, you will likely still have an extremely minute hiss. A couple of troubleshooting things I tried prior to deciding on the power conditioner was to unplug everything but the 1050 and the amp and then add components back in until the hiss got worse. For me, the TV was the culprit, but its old and a bit rough around the edges at times.

Hope this helps.

S.