The AVC-1800 was released around 2000 (that's the copyright date in the manual, at least). The Model 1050 receiver (released around the same time and admittedly not as expensive as the AVC-1800) didn't have a stereo analog bypass mode, either. Both have the ability for such a bypass by using the 5.1 analog input, which was often considered sufficient. After all, at the time most DVD players would have been connected via optical or coaxial and the multichannel analog input could be used for any more "exotic" analog sources. In hindsight, stereo analog bypass is a pretty useful feature for a lot of people.