Hi Jane.

1. If you will be listening to high-res multi-channel sources (DVD-Audio and SACD), you will need a center channel -- the current players generally lack the ability to offer a "phantom center," and the 5.1 analog inputs on most everything (possibly excepting some of the high-end pre/pros) are a pure pass-through, so there is still no way to produce a phantom center. Without that speaker, you will be losing more than 20% of the information on the disc. Since this is a music-only system, though, you don't necessarily need a purpose-built center.

2. I may be misunderstanding a bit here (it is the end of the week, my brain cells are about done in). You want the powered sub fed from the main speakers at all times, not from a separate sub/LFE output. In this case, you will need to provide some means of transferring the .1 channel on your multi-channel SACD's to the left and right signals. The 1050's analog input will not provide this sort of function (again, short of a few high-dollar HT pre/pros, there's nothing beyond volume control on the 5.1 analog inputs). Your 222ES may have bass management for SACD that will allow you to set the sub to "off," but I'm not sure. The Outlaw ICBM does support this, as well, I believe, if your SACD player does not.

3. I don't see a problem there if the receiver has pre-amp inputs.

4. The 5.1 analog input can be used for multi-channel SACD very easily. That's exactly what they are intended for.

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