I am using Atom's on swivels mounted behind me and relativly high. I found when I switched to the 1050 that I wanted the placement to be more on the side but I am moving soon so I left the speaker in this position with no center rear so far and it still sounds great.

Q-man: For TV, dish (cable), and VHS - Prologic II is a nice improvement over Prologic. You get a much better surround/stereo effect with PLII (see www.dolby.com). The same holds true for music. While Prologic and a couple other modes (DSPs) are decent for music on the 1050, I think others in this forum have found the stereo mode the best (Outlaw comments?). Again, I think Prologic II is a great improvement over Prologic for music. When you play a DVD, Prologic and Prologic II are not needed. That's when the digital 5.1 and 6.1 modes come into play.

I agree that TV programs have gotten graphic - sex and violence sells. Even the prime time comedies are based on sexual inuendos. Life imitates art you know.

As far as DVD, my $179 got me a very nice player with DVD-Audio included (no progressive scan). For $100 to $150 you'll probably find a nice player for your immediate needs. I'm still mostly a TV/VHS guy. Toshiba, Panasonic, and others make good players.

I hope this helps. If you can pull it off, a side by side receiver comparison is the best.
MD

Pioneer released the Elite 45A "universal" DVD-A/SACD player which is a step down to the Elite 47A, I say go with this if you intend to buy a Dvd player with DVD-A. YOu might as well get one with SACD. It retails for $700 but you can get it online for $500 ...i saw even saw it online for 390 bucks, Yes people! $390 can beat that for the price. The truth is i'm planning to get one soon. Well, that all depends on your budget.

Hi gonk, could you clarify something, please? (Newbie, first post, will buy Outlaw 1050 and Boston Acoustics 9000 once construction on our addition finished in time for Xmas )

You said: "The best bet for setting the 1050 up without a center rear speaker is to tell the 1050 that you have one but never enable the "Surround 6.1" mode so that it is never used"

I read the 1050 manual off the Outlaw website, and I thought that for the 5.1 setup, I was supposed to tell the 1050 that the center surround wasn't there. I'm confused -- could you clarify?

Thanks, UW

Sure.

The manual says to disable the center surround if you don't have one. But a while after the manual was written, a series of DVD's were mastered in Dolby EX with a flag that ended up causing a slew of problems for receivers with proprietary 6.1 decoding formats (Onkyo had a bunch of receivers affected). Some 1050 users reported the problem (audio drop-outs every few seconds on Jurassic Park III, Pearl Harbor, and Atlantis), while others had no trouble. Outlaw figured out that the 1050 was not affected by the bad flag if the center surround speaker was enabled.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Thanks! UW

Okay I've got a speaker questions. I'm thinking of just buying another pair of Paradigm Atoms to use for front and rear centers instead of the CC170 for front and no rear center for a while. Is front center channel duty too much to ask of an Atom since it carries such a high percentage of sound? Will it disperse sound well enough, with just one midrange speaker? If I do use this I'm perfectly matched with Atoms all the way around and get a rear center too for the same price as the CC170. Would I be better off using Titans or even a Mini monitor for a front center? Putting a Mini Monitor as a rear center seems a bit much to me, with just Atoms elsewere. Any ideas how to find some one to split a pair of Mini Monitors(front Center) and Atoms(rear center) with? That leads to the question of if I get a Mini Monitor for a FC am I going to be unhappy until my left and right fronts are Mini Monitors too?

Q-man -- first, you need to make sure you can get shielded Atoms. The center channel will be sitting on (or very near to) your TV set, and you don't want an unshielded speaker that close to the tube (shielding here referring to shielding of the magnetic field from the speaker's magnet(s), which can screw with the display and even potentially damage the set).

For TV and movie watching, the center is pretty important. The CC-170 would probably be better at it and I would definitely recommend it if you can't get shielded Atoms, but if you can get shielded Atoms it might be worth a try. An idea -- borrow one of your surround Atoms (if you already have two sets of Atoms) and set it up as center with some demo material (I'd recommend Phantom Menace, as it proved to be a good test of front sound stage with my old speakers). You may want to turn your set off if you get any rainbows or distortion in the image and just listen. If it sounds good and you can get shielded Atoms, go with it.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Gonk this reminds me are FL/FR unshielded ever a problem normaly with the display?

I'm pretty sure the new Beethovens ARE unsheilded (Haven't confirmed yet) The center they sell the Mastro is shielded.

I think???? this may not be a prob. with an LCD anyway, but could it...if I ever have a CRT around the fronts?
Whats the 'rule of thumb' on distance?

My mains aren't shielded. From my experience, unshielded mains are much more common than shielded. I've heard that you need as little as a foot or so to protect your set, but I don't know how much faith I put in that and prefer a little more separation -- my unshielded left channel is maybe two feet from my direct-view set. I don't know of how much (if any) difference shielding makes with DLP or LCD projectors -- I suspect that it shielding isn't necessary for them, but I haven't scoped them out well enough to know for certain.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review