I have owned a 1050 for about 2 years and have really enjoyed it, more than any other piece of electronics I've owned in recent memory.

I've read some knocks of the 1050 recently, calling it "outdated", etc. for not offering the latest surround modes (DPL II et. al.)
It sounds like your listening/viewing habits are very much like mine, so I suspect the lack of these features would be of no conseqence to you.

I really like the sound of it in 2 channel stereo, which probably accounts for 60-70% of the usage my unit gets. DD5.1 and DTS sound great too, and since I have no room for a 6th speaker at the moment, anything beyond 5.1 is lost on me.

If your situation is similar, I would highly recommend giving the 1050 a try. Though I haven't looked, I've heard they are showing up on ebay with some regularity, so that may be worth a look.

Good luck!

John