I have had my 1050 for about 6 weeks now and really love it. The thing I noticed in my application of the 1050 is that it is used only for home theater. In looking at many peoples HTs on the web, I get the feeling that is all many others do as well. So here are my suggestions for a possible receiver:

1. As I called this an audio receiver, that means you would ax all the video switching. I bought a wide screen TV, and I really only spend my TV watching HDTV (HBOHD, etc.) or DVD. As such, I use component inputs only, and we know one can not do quality switching without a lot of money. Why do this if your TV can do all the switching anyway. Sure, this is not everyone, but HDTV will grow.

2. Ax all of the tape IO, etc. Maybe leave one Aux input. I just don't see many people going to their HT's to listen only.

3. Keeping #2 in mind, ax the AM/FM tuner as well.

4. Now beef up the DSP section to support some of the newer formats. I doubt if it would hurt much if you left out DPL2.

5. Bump up the wattage of the amps some as well i.e. 100 watts with 3 channels driven.

6. Use high quality DACs.

7. Keep all the 5.1 IO, bass management/xover, etc. of the 1050.

I guess what I am saying is, put all the money in to making a theater only receiver.

A lot of people use their HT gear for music listening too, and you do need intermission music I do think that at least the component video switching could be left off, since you generally have to switch your video display device from S-video to component anyway when switching from something like satellite to DVD.

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The Soundhound Theater

A switching section that upsampled everything that came into it to component would be nice.

And how can you leave off DPL2? Ever watch "Kingpin" in DPL2? You can hardly tell it from DD.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

I'm wondering if a lightened up version of the 950 could be put in a box with the 7100 to make a sub $1000 receiver. This would seem to be impossible, but remember a lot of the cost of R&D could be eliminated or amortized over a broader line of products, so who knows? It would fill in a hole in the lineup.

That is what I am getting at... With Outlaw you currently go from $500.00 to about $1700.00 with the 950/7100. I was trying to make a point for something in the 700 to 800 range.

I did not mean to say that it should not support music. One could still run their CD, DVD-A, etc. I just think most don't use tape, etc. any more. The tuner is something others in other threads have stated to ax as well.

As for DPLII, in thinking about this, my guess is that if they have enough DSP HP to handle the other demanding surrounds, this should be doable too. The only cost would be if Outlaw has to pay a royalty for every surround process that is not their own.

One thing I forgot was to add a couple of more digital inputs.

I believe what you are describing would be a version of an integrated amplifier rather than a receiver- right?

It's hard to say how it would play out - whether the cost of removing functionality from the 950 design would be cheaper than just repackaging the existing guts. In any case I think if they can sell a 950/7100 combo for $1700 they should be able to re-box the parts into a 7x100 receiver for substantially less, considering that R&D would then be largely split over more than one product. Maybe the video switcher and/or tuner would be easily excisable, dunno. OTOH not having those features in a receiver would be more an issue than on a pre/pro (where things SUPPOSED to be separates) I'd think.

One potential issue is the manufacturing isn't under the same roof for the two products, so that might hurt a lot.