My 1050 has recently starting acting fishy. On DVD movies the center is almost muted or outputs slight nuances of sound. Basically the voices or center channel mix comes out muffled and quite. This is only remedied by selecting phantom or stereo where the center is re-routed. In addition, when I use pro logic with optical input from my dvr the center is also affected, only remedied by selecting NATURAL which then newly distorts the rear effects much like a very low end JVC receiver I had circa 1999. What is the problem? Interconnects are high quality as well as speaker wire. Related Speakers: Paradigm Monitor 9s, monitor center. What is wrong?

Have you tried hooking the center up to another channel to see if a driver is damaged?

Could this be the decoding flag rearing its ugly head again? As in, does this happen on all DVDs or just ones that have a DD-EX soundtrack?

The EX flag wouldn't affect performance of the center channel - it just messes with the surrounds and the surround back (rear center). What it could be, though, is a driver in the center channel (probably the tweeter, but possibly a mid/woofer) that has either failed or had some significant wear that is degrading its performance. That behavior would appear any time the center is used - both on DVD's with 5.1 tracks that have significant content in the center channel and on stereo sources processed with Pro Logic which often steers a lot of material to the center. The weird stuff from the surrounds may be unrelated and could even simply be a result of an unfamiliar surround mode (NATURAL).

I will try connecting the center to a L/R channel to see if the drivers are working well. I have listened very closely to the drivers and I don't suspect damage, but it is possible.

I put a different speaker on the center output and turns out I had a blown tweeter on my center channel . Shouldn't have doubted the 1050.

It's a tank alright. Mine's still going strong after almost five years. The one time I thought I had a problem we were watching a movie and every time the music would kick in, the 1050 would shut off. Could NOT figure it out. Left it until the next day and it turned out that my three year old had snuck behind the front right speaker and pulled out my + lead. It was laying on the - terminal and everytime the music started it was shorting out the signal. Oops!

Thanks for the follow up post. It's always nice to hear the solutions to things like this.