I bought my 1050 about 3 years ago for $150 and wish I hadn't. It certainly taught me some lessons about what features to look for in an AVR. I bought it because it had pre-outs, 5.1 analog inputs and a good reputation. It is a good thing it had pre-outs since the left front speaker output went to work part time six months later. I first added a Parasound HCA-1000A, then later went all 5 channels with a NAD T-955.

Then I realized that there was no analog pass through on any of the stereo inputs and I didn't like the electronic timbre that the DSP imparted to my phono and analog sources. The only analog pass through is on the 5.1 channel input. So those inputs are shared between my Blu-Ray front analog outputs and my NAD 106 preamp using a Niles switch.

The FM section has that same DSP sound that the other analog inputs have, only worse. I had to add a NAD tuner to the preamp to get decent FM sound.

Finally, I use my MacBook Pro for digital playback, ripping CDs to Apple Lossless and feeding to the 1050 by way of optical inputs. Thus the 1050 does the decoding. While this is convenient, I think that the CD playback from my Panasonic Blu-Ray player though the 5.1 analog output is superior.

The best I can say about it was that it was an inexpensive "learning experience". I hope to say goodbye to it in 2013 and get maybe a Parasound C1 orC2.

Jim