Sherwood Newcastle R-972 HDMI 1.3 Receiver (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Peddle]

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]

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]

Ryan,

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

thanx again,

Marek

 

[Dave Moritz]

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]

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.

 

[MarekM]

from those articles, mentioned release date was AUGUST,
my receiver is dying :frowning: I am not sure I can wait that long :frowning:

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

thanx
Marek

 

[Brent_S]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Jeff Hipps]

Dave:

Opinions are easy. Everyone has one--or even more.

When Home Theater Mag ran a receiver shoot out between, Denon, Pioneer Elite, HK and the Sherwood Newcastle R-865, they judged the Newcastle #1 for build and sound quality and #2 overall. Ultimate AV Mag has a list of the 9 best receivers in the world. The Sherwood Newcastle R-965 is no worse than #4. And it is one of the least expensive in the group. See details here: http://www.ultimateavmag.com/buyersguides/avreceivers/

Jeff

 

[Bluzman]

How refreshing and IMHO too rare - someone with actual information rather than just opinions

 

[Dave Moritz]

This is another sign IMHO about the strength of an amplifier when it can not drive lower impedance loads. I push my recievers hard so it needs to keep up and not clip when I have a demanding surround track playing.

This particular reason is nothing to do with performance but finish. All my gear is black and unless it comes with a black finish I would rather choose something else that has great specs.

The back of the unit IMHO looks like a cheap older Sansui or Fisher. It lacks the clean look of the Denon, Marantz, Adcom, Pioneer Elite, Rotel, Sunfire ect....

While they basically gave the receiver a good review I seems like very few products get bad reviews anymore. I also do not like the layout of the face plate and the hard plastic buttons. When the new model comes out I may still check it out so I have not doubt that what ever receiver I buy I bought the right one. I have to say though it will be a plus that the new Sherwood Newcastle will have HDMI 1.3 and lossless decoding. So again I may end up checking out or I might not depending on the hastle in finding a dealer close to where I live.

 

[Jeff Hipps]

Dave:

Any fears that Lawrence Ullman, Ultimate AV Mag's reveiwer had about the specs of the R-965 were well settled by the measurements:

Driving all seven channels into 8ohms, the Sherwood delivered (to the nearest watt) 108Wpc at 20Hz (126Wpc into 4ohms) and 113Wpc at 1kHz (144Wpc into 4ohms) before clipping (1% THD+noise). At 1kHz, with only two channels operating, the Sherwood clipped at 134Wpc into 8ohms and 220Wpc into 4ohms.—Thomas J. Norton

Jeff

 

[Seth=L]

It's dissapointing this model isn't out yet, and for the record, the Sherwood Newcastle receivers are very much in line with Marantz, Denon, Yamaha, Integra etc... Sherwood used to manufacture Rotel receivers in part or whole.

 

[Wayde_R]

Well the long wait for the Sherwood Newcastle R-972 is almost over.

The product has taken on a new life from the original look we had at CES way back in 07. It now boasts the Trinnov Optimizer as its raison de etre.

Whether you think a room EQ is enough to steer you toward this product or not... the HQV Reon video processing should spark some interest too.

I got to test out the product at a tradeshow recently and the Sherwood rep said it'd be out by December '08.

 

[Dave Moritz]

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If Sherwood wants to put out a new flagship receiver thats cool. But would I personally pay aprox. $1799 MSRP for a Sherwood receiver? Most likely No! There is always a chance that Sherwood could step up its game and put out a really good receiver. But IMHO there product is not been as good as companies like Marantz, Denon or Pioneer Elite. Now it is said that it has the some of the usual HDMI 1.3, Video Scaling to 1080p and lossless audio decoding. Now while I would most likely not buy a Sherwood for my home theater I would still be interested in knowing, is Sherwood going to use Audyssey or will they use the Trinnov Optimizer? What DAC's will the new Sherwood flagship use? And will the Sherwood be as gutless and eneimic as the Sony receivers? What I am leaning towards is a receiver using Audyssey room correction as that is the one I prefer at this time. I just can not even see a Sherwood as being a upgrade from my current 11 year old Yamaha. I will nowever concide that there is a chance that the Sherwood could end up being better than what Sony is pumping out at this time. IMHO the Sony receivers have been eneimic and not very good compaired to other brands.

 

[pink]

I am almost sure they make Outlaw and Atlantic Technology Processor and Amp.

 

[Brent_S]

Pink, this comes up from time to time and is easily confirmed with a little Google action. The Outlaw 990 shared the P-965 platform. For a while, Boston Acoustics also offered a P-965 and A-965 clone. The Outlaw 950 and 970 (and 1070?) were made by Easttech (not Etronics, S-N's parent). The 950 design was shared by Atlantic Tech (Peter Tribeman is a principal in AT and Outlaw) and Sherbourn. I'm not aware of anyone sharing the 970 platform.

The mutlichannel Outlaw amps appear to be built by ATI here in the USA. The monoblocs are of Asian origin, but I've never seen who gets credit as the OEM.

Unless it's as obvious as the 990-965 or the Outlaw/Atl-Tech/Sherbourne clones, it's highly unlikely the OEM or brand company will reveal their relationship. I would also guess there are more OEMs in the game than just Easttech and Etronics. A brand could even use multiple OEMs to produce the same product, if needed for production volume.

-Brent