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

This thread may be almost worn out, but, my 2 cents: I am a new owner of a used 1050, and I can compare the 1050 to the Yamaha 5250 that I now use in a second system. 90% of my use of both receivers is with movies.

I always seemed to have trouble understanding dialog with the Yamaha--the 1050 seems clearer somehow (even my wife, who thinks a one-speaker AM radio sounds pretty good [please don't share this description with her]) agrees. I also feel there is better channel separation with the 1050. True, the 1050 has only about 1/4 the audio modes of my Yamaha, but I only used a few of the Yamaha modes, and the ones I used are on the 1050. Regarding PL v. PL II, I preferred PL on my Yamaha--less delay, clearer sound. As for power, my Yamaha has 100 wpc, and my typical volume was at about 30% in a fairly large room with 35 foot ceilings. The 1050 does fine at about "65" or less.

We may all be rationalizing our purchase of the 1050, but I am very pleased with what I have. Further, try to find this kind of board and peer help with the other brands you are considering!

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Michael Stano

Outlaw 1050
Klipsch KG 3.2s frt & rr
Klipsch KV 3 center
Klipsch SW 10 sub
Mitsubishi DD 8020 DVD
Mitsubishi HS U70 SVHS
Mitsubishi 46" 16:9 TV

Yamaha HRT 5250
AR PS 2052 frt & rr
AR PSC 25 center
AR PSB S108 sub
Sony DVP-C660 DVD
Sony SLV-N70 VHS
Sony 32" TV

OK, I took the plunge, ordered the new 1050, so we can see if it has the power to push my Infinity IL 50's and my old but good Sansui's..

Does anyone know anything about the new HK digital receiver coming out? I see it on their web site, but can't find anything on it. Anyone had good or bad luck with HK.

Also, with regards to DLPII, can someone explain how that is different or an improvement over DPL per Michael's comments? Thanks.

I went shopping for a new receiver last weekend. I was not too impressed with the HK, Denon, Pioneer, and Yahama..just too much plastic, low on power

Anyone had good or bad luck with HK.
Bad luck, but only on one purchase about 5 years back my son had (either?) a HK receiver doing pre-amp duty or a HK prepro and HK amp mix, but the units are long gone and I was just not paying as much attention back them to remember the year/make.
They went in for warranty 3 times, Then a bedroom 'crash' took the rec/pre out for a third time (not at ALL covered by warranty) and the son gave up.

At the time we had several friends fussing about glitchy HK purchases. But again,...years ago...as ANY manuf. can have models which launch with different versions of problems. I would not rule out a demo of any HK unit but I would watch Consumer user reviews on a new model to see how many returns and for which/what issues. (something to self debate living with or something unacceptable by any criteria).

I have always liked HK sound. But I did purchase my 950/770 over the HK 8000, Which was very temptingly available while I was on the 950-wait list. (I came into the forum looking for separates or a super-receiver and settled on the separate route after some listening out and about). I never owned the 1050 but if it sounds as the 950 after you get it settled into your setup, I can see why many have been delighted by that purchase. FOR ME, I ended by being VERY glad I waited on the 950. But these are personal choices, it should be your ears (and tradeoff list) that chose.

As regards my experience with DPLII, I think it’s a plus to have it. But as with almost all the latest SM’s offered, it has limited application. I can’t buy many DVD’s in DTS even though I often prefer it over DD. And DPLII ONLY steers certain recordings effectively, on many it makes absolutely little to none quality advance over DPL, the recording is just not encoded in a way that II can take any advantage of.

DPL decodes 4 channels from stereo DS (L/C/R/ and surround)
DPLII is more advanced matrix that derives 5 channels (L/C R/LS/RS)
The main difference being 2 full-range surrounds Vs one. Between these two. Neither matrix has a .1 channel (LFE) encoded/decoded. DPL sacrifices discreet channel separation when encoding to get music into the surrounds, unlike DD, which keeps the channel infor discreet and adds the .1 channel.
Every so often I hear some material which DPLII does an eerily close job of reproducing as if it is being decoded in DD. However, unfortunately, more often than not the material in the recording is just not there to work with, and in that (more frequent) scenario, I notice negligible improvement over DPL.
When it works it’s a plus IMO.