Is Sherwood the UFO of HT equipment? (1 Viewer)

[Steve K.H.]

I have a two page PDF brochure. With the switch from At Home, I've been to lazy to set up a webpage to allow links to it.

If someone will post the PDF on their page (with a link here), I'll email it to them. (This is for the Newcastle 963.)

-Steve

 

[Philip Hamm]

Thanks for the post John Garn. I've been happy with my Sherwood pre/pro and amp for the short time I've owned them, but unfortunately my amp broke! So far Sherwood's customer service has been good on this.

 

[Han]

Philip,

where do you go to buy Sherwood stuff now? I just noticed last week while driving by, that the Audio ___ place in Falls Church was shut down. From what I can remember, they were the only Sherwood (also PSB) dealer in Northern Virginia. I never liked them much when they were around, but they were the only Sherwood store I know of, as I'm preparing for the upcoming pre/pro.

 

[Samuel Des]

John - You've been writing some GREAT posts. Thanks for the knowledge.

 

[John Garn]

Sam-

When I was a dealer, I treated my customers the way I always wanted to be treated.....sounds a bit idealistic but I'm the only one who has to look at myself in the mirror every morning..........

You're welcome!!

John

 

[Philip Hamm]

Han,

I got my Sherwood stuff mail order, the amp from uBid, the pre/pro from EPay. Haven't sought out a local dealer, but I'd like to see their other stuff.

 

[Gil D]

Can someone please forward me the list of Sherwood dealers.

Thanks.

 

[John Morris]

Can someone please forward me the list of Sherwood dealers.

Gil: a guy named Jeff can tell you anything you need to know about Sherwood America products. Go back and look at post #36, in this thread, and send him an email. He is the Senior VP of Sales and Marketing for Sherwood Newcastle in the Americas.

Good Luck... you are gonna love your SN unit.

 

[Russell _T]

How about a link to the SN web site.

Thanks,

 

[John Kotches]

http://www.sherwoodusa.com
Regards,

 

[Russell _T]

Thank you John.

 

[Han]

John Kotches,
Has anyone commented on your review yet. Particularly Sherwood reps?
I really enjoyed it, and found the detail level in some areas very helpful. Especially, since I'm a nitpicky kind of guy. Convenience is priority 1a with me along with sound quality. I really hope those shortcomings with the bass management and signal detection / auto default settings get resolved with the receiver as well as implemented into the upcoming pre/pro.

 

[John Kotches]

Han,
Jeff Hipps saw the review.
My findings were the same as Sound & Vision for bass managment and my first call went in well before the review published, to make sure my results were "sane". In other words that I was getting the expected results for a given configuration. Some of the BM issues can be worked around as noted in the Bass Management section. However, I also think they should just be implemented right, so that you don't have to think about it too much
There is a quick workaround (undocumented) if you want some specific decoding algorithms -- which are hidden on Pg. 2 of the CD control panel.... DPL-2 Music and DTS Neo Music are hidden away on this screen which means exiting the Audio device (aka receiver control) -- going to main, selecting CD, then "Page 2". THen you have to back out once again, and select the "Audio" device to return to controlling the receiver.
I don't know what updates can/will be implemented, however all that was reported in the review was also reported to Sherwood.
In terms of usability, it's always a struggle with a new piece. Like it or not, what you use everyday is what you get used to and there's always an initial few days (or even a couple of weeks) of getting acclimated to something new. Even after that period, I felt that the menu wasn't as intuitive as I would have liked and that it was a bit too difficult to do the things that you want to do routinely very quickly.
A big help might be some screen prompts for configurations. I think I might have missed a detail in the review. If you're in an FPTV environment, and you dim the display completely, it comes back on at full brightness and remains on when you do any adjustment. IMO, that should come on for 5-10 seconds, then go back to off.
I will probably never be one of those writers that waxes eloquently for 1,000 words on the sonic subtleties between two different brands of guitar strings

 

[Jeff Hipps]

I don't want to get involved with nit picking John's commentary or his findings. Overall I think it is a fair assessment. But I do think there are a handful of things that need additional comment.

1. With respect to the sonic performance, the R-963 and it's little brother, the R-863, are impeccable. Kumin called the R-963 "quiet, accurate and powerful." I think John would agree. I even suspect that the R-963, when used solely as a pre-pro, outperformed his current reference unit.

2. All of today's advanced receivers are extraordinarily complicated. In fact, they all sport built-in computer based operating systems, dozens if not hundreds of sub routines, and yet all operate virtually without flaw when run from our couches via a tiny hand held remote. The fact is, CE equipment achieves a level of usability/reliability that is the envy of the "real" computer world. You can nit pick any receiver, including ours, yet my wife has no difficulty engaging its essential functions every time she uses it...and she never has to re-boot.

3. All the receivers available today, save one high end Elite model, fail to provide proper bass management for DVD-A and SACD. The R-963 and R-863 fail there, too. But let's not blow our failure out of proportion. We are certainly no worse, here, than anyone else and one could argue that our built-in (and defeat able) high pass filtering, which removes any out of band bass from the signal sent to one's satellite speakers when using the the 7.1 direct (analog) input, is actually a step above. At least no one using the R-963 (or R-863)will unknowingly damage small speakers with our receiver.

4. We have not been able to duplicate John's reported problems with Autodetect.

Finally, I'd like to thank John for his efforts. I appreciate them.

Jeff

 

[StevenK]

I agree that these are quite minor annoyances and the positives seem to far outweigh the negatives. I'd like to see another receiver offer the same level of performance and the same feature set at a similar price. That being said, the ergonomics issues do put me off. But like you said, once the system is set and I can just sit on the couch and get to all the features/functions I need, then who cares. It just seems that this machine has a slightly higher learning curve than most. I guess you just have to put in the effort if you want that Newcastle sound (which is fantastic, IMO).

BTW Jeff, since you're here....

I'm trying very hard to find a 863.

Could you tell me if there are any dealers in the Sacramento area?

Also, any warranty issues with receivers purchased online?

Lastly...and possible way to trigger the 9080 amp without DigiLink III?

 

[John Kotches]

Some people seem to think that my review of the R-963 was "not so good"...
Well I suppose so, in that I wasn't effusively singing the praises that this is the best product ever, ever, ever.
It has flaws, everything does. The flaws that are there, are able to be worked around -- so it isn't the end of the world. Can it be easier to use? Certainly. I pointed that out.
Have I seen worse? I used to own worse. My first Processor was a Golden Theater GTX-1. An excellent sounding unit, that had a terrible user interface, but I liked it for the sound
I'm glad a number of people are reading the article, and hopefully we can continue to have intelligent discussion about the product.
Regards all,

 

[Steve Zimmerman]

John, great review as usual.

Jeff, your presence and response is quite refreshing. I continue to be quite impressed. I could be wrong, but my impression is that you were quoted somewhere on this forum as saying that the Sherwood 9080 combo would still sound better than the solo R-963. Did I read that right? If so, am I to assume that the R-963 as a pre-pro when paired with the AM-9080 amplifier would sound even better yet?

As an owner of the 9080 combo, I'm curious of course.

--Steve

 

[Marvin E]

2. All of today's advanced receivers are extraordinarily complicated.

Jeff:

Maybe the internals of the R863 are "extraordinarily complicated", but I would categorize it as very simple to setup and operate. The operating manuals of some of your competitors are so filled with tech-no babble and useless combinations of features, that it gave me a headache trying to understand the setup procedure. I work with IBM mainframe operating systems as a profession...trying to trouble shoot a system outage is easier to debug than the manuals I've downloaded from other manufacturers web sites.

 

[Camp]

I wonder why Sherwood doesn't take a stab at Internet sales -like Outlaw. The Newcastle line has very good buzz online and it would bypass the problem of finding local dealers. I'd love to buy Newcastle stuff "factory direct" if such an option existed.
One thing is for sure, they'd beat Outlaw in the looks department.

 

[Philip Hamm]

One thing is for sure, they'd beat Outlaw in the looks department.

That's for sure. But I have to admit that my ICBM looks nice tucked up on top of my AM-9080.
Is John's article online? A link please?