In all honesty, there have been some problems decoding some DVDs in 5.1 mode (see the Harry Potter Thread). Since these problems do not occur in the 6.1 mode with 6 speakers, this should not present an issue if you are willing to commit to adding the additional speaker(s) at the same time. If you are not I would consider this more carefully.

FWIW, if you are going because of 6.1 you may want to consider going directly to 7.1. The decoding is the same, the only difference is the addition of a 2nd speaker and the additional channel of amplification.

I am not familiar with your specific Yamaha model. In my case, I upgraded to a 1050 from an older Yamaha that lacked Dolby 5.1 processing capabilities, otherwise, I am not sure that the 1050 provided a solid improvement. It certainly lacks a lot of the flexibility that my older Yamaha provided. I would carefully compare your model against the 1050's manual (available online) and determine if you will lose any features you use now.

Having said this, I should point out that I was feeding my old Yamaha's front outputs into a separate power amp (and am still doing this with the 1050). I would strongly suggest reviewing whether your model has preamp outs and determining whether a more powerful amp might prove beneficial. For example if your fronts speakers are seriously underpowered, 2 monoblocks may be just the ticket to improve your sound. More than likely something like the 7100 might even be better especially if you are considering going to 6.1 or 7.1 at some point in the future. Then you could upgrade to a 950 at some future point when your buget allows for it.

[This message has been edited by 73Bruin (edited June 29, 2003).]