First the rear center question. How important is it that the rear center match the two surround speakers? Can two rear surround speakers(8 ohm) be hooked up instead of the center? I think I'd have better luck finding a pair of speakers to match mine than a single center.

Now on to some rambling about my receiver purchase indecision...

I'm considering the Outlaw 1050, along with the H/K AVR325, NAD T752 & Denon AVR2803. The attractive thing about the 1050 being in Canada is the price, which is approx. C$900 with the full warranty. This is approx. the same price as the others, ordered online from the US without any warranty. These products are approx. C$1500 in Canada (normal retail prices). Given the problems reported online in varius forms of previous model NAD products I would not consider one without a warranty. I'm thinking of dropping the Denon purely because it seems light for a receiver with seven 90watt amplifiers (approx 27lbs.) and I don't believe their power ratings as much as H/K, NAD & Outlaw.

The H/K pretty well has all of the features I would want, including channel-specific bass-management, DPLII, DD-EX, direct analog passthrough, but it's not worth the extra C$600 or so to me. And I'm nervous about ordering one without a warranty.

Both NAD & H/K specify a 'high current' value in their specs., I believe it's 35 for the H/K and 45 for the NAD, does anyone know if there is a corresponding measurement for the 1050?

In the end, I'm leaning heavily towards the 1050. Sure, I'd like to have DPLII and DD-EX and some other features but for C$900 I'd rather have 6.1 than DPLII.

All the same, I think I'll wait it out until Christmas to see if the Outlaws come up with a newer receiver and/or lower the price even further on the 1050 or if I can pick up a H/K AVR325 or NAD T752 on sale.

Howard

I don't think it's essential to get a rear center that matches the surrounds, although it would be nice (unfortunately all my experience with the 1050 involved identical surrounds and rear center, so I'm not real sure what difference it might make). Two speakers (both 8 ohm) can be connected, and the manual even has a short blurb on the subject.

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

My rear centers don't match my surrounds and I've never noticed it sounding unnatural since they arent voiced the same. You should be fine.

From personal experience, I would stay away from HK. I've had 3 HK components over the years: a receiver that died of old age but with "low mileage", another receiver that was DOA, and a refurbed HK DVD player that died after a year. Don't let the feature set sway you too far away from the 1050.