I am in the market for a new receiver, and just started looking at the Marantz, Yamaha, and now the Outlaw, it seems like the Outlaw is well built receiver but lacks features like DAC, THX, Dolby Pro Logic II, HDCD Decoder, are these features really necessary ? Mostly I listen to radio, CD's and watch movies in sound sound. Seems like there are so many new formats for movies, it seems so confusing..

The 1050 does lack Pro Logic II and THX. If you were planning to watch a lot of cable TV, Pro Logic II could be useful (it's a refinement of Pro Logic that can make a two-channel source sound more convincingly like surround). THX is basically a refinement of Dolby Digital -- I don't consider it a loss, especially at the 1050's price point. As for an HDCD decoder, do you have any HDCD-encoded CD's? I know of only one in my collection.

The 1050 does have quite good DAC's (digital-to-analog converters) for a receiver in its price range. It also has the "core" movie audio formats: Dolby Digital and DTS, plus a proprietary "EX" decoding process called "6.1 Surround" that I consider at least as good as Dolby Digital EX. As some other 1050 owners may tell you, the 1050 also offers very good sound and a lot more power than the 65W/channel rating may suggest.

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

The reason most people will buy the 1050 NOW,it would be for it's Sound,Sonics and detail......as Gonk already explain ,it comes with your basics for surround,even dough it doesn't have Dolby pro II,you still get Dolby pro in the Digital domain wich I think sounds very good.Now for the power rating of 65 watts per channel;I believe that it has a 6 db's of Dynamic Headroom,because the power sounds much more then the 65 watt power rating at peak levels,now if you play some music at loud levels,you could hear some compression on the music,(remember I am talking at LOUD levels)I think for the money you get a very musical receiver,and for movies you can't go wrong.

Thanks for the info here, I have as set of Sansui 3200 (vintage), a set of Infinity IL 50's, and one Infinity IL 25 (center) speaker, do you think the Outlaw will drive them ok ? I know about power rating, some receivers sound faint with 100 watt x 5 channels. I have listened to a high end Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer, Onkyo, and they really don't sound as nice as my Carver CT28 preamp and Phase Linear 200 watt amp.. I would like to down size, one box does all....I have always been told if you can can carry it under your arm, then it don't sound so good.

I'm not surprised that the receivers you have listened to don't sound as good as the Carver / Phase Linear combo. Most home theater receivers are not intended to handle two-channel music reproduction as well as they do movie surround sound. The 1050 typically gets good marks for music compared to the competition -- and mine never sounded "faint," unlike some of the underwhelming "100Wx5" receivers that I've heard. Several people here in the saloon have also had good results with some of the Marantz receivers.



-- I think that might be a slight exaggeration. Of course, it also begs the question "what can you carry under your arm" -- the 1050 weighs in at around 35 pounds, and whenever I moved mine I used both arms.

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

Once again,the truth is on the DEMO.....and if you like the Carver pre-amp,you will LOVE the 1050,You could even compere the sound of your Phase Linear to the 1050 and decide for your self.( you might even find that the differences in db's are very small)Your Infinity speakers should sound better thru the Outlaw,specialy on the DETAILS.

I was just thinking about this problem myself. I have a home theater set-up with all the new wiz-bang equipment and watch maybe one or two movies a month. But I listen to CDs/SACDs all the time.

I'm beginning to tire of the special effects and bass of movies and appreaciate the old 2.1 more and more.

This is the hard part of buying the 1050. It's lack of features was the main hurdle in my decision to purchase the 1050. I made my decision based on the fact that I wanted good quality sound first and foremost. I find for two channel sources listening in two channel is fine. Maybe if I heard a really good ProLogic II system it would change my opinion. Perhaps the 950 owners can report how often they really use the PLII setting and for what sources. This would give you a good feel for how important this feature is.

Good luck with your decision.

Thanks so much for the info here, I have not really decided on what to get, I like the sound and build of Carver the best, but really can't afford the new model. I really listen to CD music and watch DVDs, I really don't care about all the features of the new models, seems like as soon as you by it, they add new formats/sounds for movies anyway.

I had my 1050 for a year and a half (used with a Model 750 amp for about half of that time), and have had my 950 for eight or nine months now. I use Pro Logic II for TV watching (digital cable), but for CD listening I almost always leave it in stereo mode. Pro Logic II can go some good stuff, but I still tend to prefer listening to my two-channel music in straight stereo.

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