When does the NEW Sherwood prepro hit the Streets?? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Hipps]

Kevin:

I don't know off the top of my head so I relayed your question to the factory. I'll post their response on receipt.

Jeff

 

[Lewis Besze]

Why the labels don't let the manufacturers have digital outputs on the players,and proper inputs on pre/pros,is beyond me.This would eliminate all the BS that currently we have to deal with.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Lewis.
Pioneer & Meridian (to name two) have 5.1 digital music inputs.
More will follow.

Jeff,
Is the new release date Dec. 10th?
What happen to your last posting of "should ship in October"?
How much more "real estate" does the new pre/pro have?
Were does the Analog Devices DAC, come into play?
Only with 2 ch. 16/44.1 LPCM?
Or, is it the user's choice to engage upsampling of any digital audio signal?
Thx & good luck getting this out before 2004!!!

 

[Jeff Hipps]

Ed:

We fully expect to be shipping the P-965 on or before 12/10/03. I do not know the exact cause for the delay from October to December, but in my experience in this industry, 60 days is a mild delay.

Now to your technical questions:

The rear panel dimensions of the P-965 are 17 3/8" wide x 7" high. From my memory, this is about 1 1/2" taller than it's predecessor. The chassis is also 2 1/2 inches deeper.

The Analog Devices chip is not a DAC. We're using their AD-1896 sample rate convertor to re-master the left and right main channels of any digital input to 192 kHz sampling frequency and 24-bit word depth. For CD, this moves the brick wall filter from 22 kHz to 96 kHz. My audiophile friends, including at least one reviewer, tell me this improves the sound of their CD's. Also, because the Remastering chip follows the DSP chip, we remaster the left and right main channels for both Dolby Digital and DTS to 192/24.

The digital remastering can be engaged from the OSD of via a front panel push-button.

Jeff

 

[Lewis Besze]

Pioneer & Meridian (to name two) have 5.1 digital music inputs.

Meridian pass/decode SACD? I'm talking universaly aproved used methods like the current SPDIF,not propreatery.

 

[David Judah]

I thought I read somewhere(maybe on this Forum)that firewire was approved for DVD-A and Pioneer's implementation was was within the specs.

DJ

 

[Lewis Besze]

I haven't heard that,but it could be true.Nevertheless it's far from widespread,and doesn't address SACD naturally.But don't wanna hijack this thread any longer.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

not propreatery

Correct!
Nothing "FINAL", has hit the streets yet.
Only manufacture specific digital 5.1 music out/inputs.
Best guess would be firewire.
Does anyone know about copy protection, for 5.1?

 

[Ed St. Clair]

60 days is a mild delay

Haven't heard that one before.
Just glad I wasn't holding my breath!
The first post for this thread, is well over a year old.
So, is over 12 months, more than a mild delay?
Sorry, about that Jeff.
You know the personal pain Marc Silver & I went though with the 9080.
As stated before, good luck getting this out before the end of 2003.
This thing is gigantic.
Will it fit on a shelf, or does one require an amp stand?
Thx for the lesson on the "sample rate convertor".
I'll have to go back thur some Stereophile issue's, and find another product that uses this device.
Glad your on this Forum.
Any chance, I know this is a tough one, the new unit will have Pro Logic IIx?
Even though Dobly Labs, when they announced Pro Logic II, said they had no plans to add to the 5.1 channels, I 'knew' this was coming!
HT is SUCH a numbers game.
They 'had' too do it!

 

[Jeff Hipps]

Ed:

Yes, the P-965 will have Dolby Pro Logic IIx when it ships in a little over 30 days. It's also field upgradeable, so should our friends at DTS decide to introduce Neo-7 or another new code, our users will be able to add that, too. The upgrade will require a CD that we will supply and a computer hooked up to the pre-pro by either RS-232 serial cable or by USB.

Jeff

 

[Sven_DP]

Jeff,

I realize this a difficult one, but are there any plans to add some form of automatic speaker calibration, à la Pioneer and Yamaha lately? It seems to me that they may have found something to make a difference on the 'larger' consumer market. Personally I think it can't be long before the Denon's, HK's and Sony's of this world will follow this same road...

Concerning the upgradability of the new Sherwood equipment. Is this a guarantee? Because looking at for instance the Elite's, besides the flagship, I am sure that they will never use RS-232 or USB or whatever for upgrades in a foreseeable future. To give an example : Even on the new 55TXi - AX5i, they will NEVER provide a DPLIIx upgrade, even though technically it would be quite easy to do so.

So the (do-it-yourself) upgradability aspect could push me towards Sherwood, even though support is really lacking in Europe, let alone in Belgium.

Sven.

 

[Jeff Hipps]

Sven:

We are looking at automatic calibration for future products, but we will definitely not have that feature in this round of introductions.

As to the upgrades, I understand what you are saying. It's easy for manufacturers to have the intention to allow upgrading. It's certainly harder to implement and not many actually do it. In our case, the ability to upgrade is built in to the products and we will already have taken advantage of it to add both DPL IIX and Dolby Virtual Speaker. Neither technology was included in our CEDIA samples. Both will be included when the units ship.

Since our upgrade plan is technically feasible, easy to implement and inexpensive, I firmly believe that we will follow through. That is certainly our intention.

Jeff

 

[Lewis Besze]

Jeff,what is the price on this pre/pro?

 

[Jeff Hipps]

SRP is $1499.95

Jeff

 

[Lewis Besze]

Cool! Thanks!

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Yes, the P-965 will have Dolby Pro Logic IIx

Awesome!!!
Way too go, Jeff.
Look's like Sherwood Newcastle has a real winner on it's hands!
And some day, ours!

 

[Devin U]

Also, whats the MSRP on the R-965 and R-865? Do you have any authorized online dealers?

 

[Jeff Hipps]

The R-965 is $1999.95. The R-865 is $1499.95. There are no authorized on-line etailers.

Jeff

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Jeff- Ever find out what the analog to digital converters are for the 5.1 analog input? 24/48 or 24/96 I'm guessing.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

I'll have to go back thur some Stereophile issue's, and find another product that uses this device.

Well, I did not have too go back very far!
The current Nov. issue, has a review of the AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000.
My bedroom CD player (fully loaded version, of coarse), after I win the lottery.
It has a Analog Devices AD1895 chip.
Which is a second-generation 24bit, asynchronous (easy for you too say!) sample rate converter.
It's part of a $349 upgrade that includes a Wolfson Mircoelectronics WM8740 DAC.
Jeff says the Newcastle P-965 has the AD1896.
Third generation?
Stereophile thought the player with the upsampler "acquitted itself like a champ".
Warning of a prolonged break in time & etched topend with some room/systems.
However, categorizes the highs as not "bright", but "brilliant".

Would it be possible to upgrade this unit for DVD-A/SACD digital input?