Sherwood Newcastle R-972 HDMI 1.3 Receiver

Ryan Peddle · 03-23-2007, 08:05 AM

This is the first receiver I have seen/announced so far that has all the new codecs, lots of HDMI connections, and HDMI 1.3 spec.

And the price isn't too bad either at $1499 US.

Here are a couple of links:

From Audioholics.com

From CNET.com

From AVGuide.com

Looks like a winner to me. This unit will be at the top of my list to put my savings towards when I am ready to upgrade. New we just need to see what other companies put out there...Denon, Marantz?

Ryan Peddle · 03-23-2007, 08:16 AM

By the way, there is also the Sherwood Newcastle R-872, which is the same as the R-972 except for the following:

Alphanumeric instead of GUI OSD
One less optical input
SNAP Room EQ instead of Audyssey MultEQ XT
Cirrus CS-49700 instead of the TI DSPs
Four HDMI inputs instead of Six

The R-872 is supposed to be $999US. Now I am really intruiged.

MarekM · 03-25-2007, 08:37 AM

Ryan,

thanx for link and INFO !!
I am so impatien for any info about HDMI1.3 receivers hmm

thanx again,

Marek

Dave Moritz · 03-25-2007, 06:27 PM

While it is nice to see that Sherwood is jumping right in and offering HDMI 1.3 receivers. That will offer not only Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. How ever IMHO Sherwood can not compete with brands like Pioneer Elite, Denon, Marantz or Yamaha. I am not saying that the Sherwood is not a nice peice. But I do not think that the Sherwood offering would be a step of from my current Yamaha RX-V995 overall. Shure the Sherwood would have lossless decoding component video and HDMI switching. But when compairing the overall build quality, the type of switches used on the faceplate. The audio performance and quality of the internal amplifiers and quality of the internl decoders. IMHO at least for what I am looking for I do not see the Sherwood as having what it takes to sit my HT as my next surround sound receiver.

Dan Driscoll · 03-26-2007, 11:08 AM

Dave, don't confuse the standard Sherwood products with the Sherwood-Newcastle line. The design and build quality of Newcastle components is every bit as good, if not better, than Yamaha, Onkyo, Marantz, et al.

I would actually rate Newcastle on par with similarly priced NAD and Rotel components, which I consider a small step up from the standard mass market brands. The mid and top of the line Denon and Pioneer Elite components are also in that category, but are much more expensive.

**HTF Ads**

MarekM · 03-26-2007, 01:03 PM

from those articles, mentioned release date was AUGUST,
my receiver is dying

I am not sure I can wait that long

any chance other hdmi1.3 receivers will pop up sooner ?

thanx
Marek

Brent_S · 03-26-2007, 05:59 PM

Also don't forget, Sherwood and Sherwood-Newcastle are the house brand names that OEM Etronics uses to bring its own products to market. In an interview a few years ago, Etronics claimed responsibility for manufacturing something like 80% of the DD receivers on the market. No idea what their current market share is, but chances are they're still the real design/build house behind a lot of the better known brands on the market.

As for their own product quality. Either Sound & Vision or Hometheater Mag did a shoot out of mid priced receivers a couple of years ago. If I remember correctly, the Sherwood in that test came the closes to matching it's rated output while also being the most feature packed and least expensive unit tested...also the heaviest.

The last thing I'll add. If Sherwood saig August, I wouldn't mark it on my calendar yet. With OEM being their main business, they'll take care of those customers first...the house brand products, at least the P-965, AVP-9080 and their universal DVD players, have been known to miss ship dates by quite a bit. If you can stand the wait, I've seen very few be disappointed with the peformance or value. Still using my 9080 from 1999 with no real desire to upgrade.

-Brent

DaViD Boulet · 03-27-2007, 09:15 AM

If memory serves me correctly, Sherwood was also one of the first receivers to offer DTS decoding back in the 1990's with DVD.

Dave Moritz · 03-27-2007, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Dave, don't confuse the standard Sherwood products with the Sherwood-Newcastle line. The design and build quality of Newcastle components is every bit as good, if not better, than Yamaha, Onkyo, Marantz, et al.

Hey Dan I know that Sherwood Newcastle is better than the standard Sherwood line. But I honestly would not place Sherwood Newcastle up there with Denon, Marantz or Pioneer Elite. Maybe with Onkyo and Sony but not with Rotel or even NAD. I do not think that a Sherwood R-972 would be moving my ht towards audio/vidoflie quality. To me Sherwood is like Sony, Technics, Panasonic and Onkyo, sorry thats just the way I feel about it.