Sherwood NEWCASTLE R-965 - PRODUCT Brochure & Specs
Back in the misty days when 2-channel stereo was still an exciting new format and tubes
ruled the land, Sherwood was a brand name to be reckoned with. Together with such companies as Harman/Kardon, Fisher, Marantz, and McIntosh, Sherwood was instrumental
in launching the American hi-fi industry on a path that would culminate in today’s highend audio gear—grist for our sister publication, Stereophile.
However, the path was a rocky one. When audio went solid-state in the 1960s and ’70s,
Sherwood and the other giants of American hi-fi found themselves unable to compete
with the cheap transistorized gear flooding in from Japan. One by one, the American companies fell on hard times and were forced to sell. For the next decade or so, the once proud
Sherwood logo appeared only on a long line of inexpensive, mass-market gear.
Then something wonderful happened. Several years ago, Sherwood—now owned by
Etonics—announced a new line of high-quality audio products. Named after the location
of the company’s assembly plant in the UK, Newcastle components would be sold only
through custom installers and AV specialty retailers.
The first product in the Newcastle line—the R-945 AV receiver—was introduced to
great critical acclaim in 1998. Michael
Fremer reviewed it in the May 1998 issue of
the Stereophile Guide to Home Theater. Next
came the company’s first home-theater separates, the AVP-9080R processor and AM9080 multichannel amp. I not only gave the
9080 combo a glowing review in the (sadly
defunct) webzine etown.com, but found the
pair satisfying enough to use as the centerpiece of my reference system for several
more years.(The AVP-9080R and AM-9080
were also reviewed in the June 1999 SGHT.)
Progress marches on, and the 5.1channel 9080 separates I so enjoyed have
been superseded by the 7.1-channel P-965
processor and A-965 multichannel amplifier.
Going full circle, Sherwood recently repackaged its flagship 965 separates, combining
the two pieces into a single cabinet to create
the subject of this review, the R-965 AV
receiver.
ULTIMATE AV | DECEMBER 2004
Sherwood Newcastle
R-965
B
SPECIFICATIONS
R-965 AV receiver
Output power, stereo: 120Wpc @ 8Ω,
20Hz–20kHz, 0.05% THD
Output power, surround: 140Wpc @ 8Ω, 1kHz,
0.7% THD, 1 channel or channel pair driven
Signal/noise: line, 105dB; phono (MM), 80dB
(IHF A-weighted)
Sound modes:
Dolby: Virtual Speaker, Headphone, Pro
Logic II, Pro Logic IIx Music, Pro Logic IIx
Movie, 5.1, EX
DTS: 96/24, Neo:6 Cinema, Neo:6 Music,
ES Matrix 6.1, ES Discrete 6.1
Other: Stereo, 7.1-channel analog bypass,
MPEG Multichannel, 13 DSP modes
Video inputs: Rear: 3 component, 6 S-video,
6 composite. Front: 1 S-video,1 composite
Video outputs: Monitor:1 component, 1 S-video,
1 composite. Record: 2 S-video,2 composite
Analog audio inputs: Rear: 1 7.1-channel, 8 L/R,
1 phono. Front: 1 L/R
Analog audio outputs: 9 preamp, 2 L/R
Digital audio inputs: 2 coax, 7 optical (1 on
front), 1 USB
Digital audio outputs: 1 coax, 1 optical
Other connectors: 1 RS-232C (DB9), 2 IR ins,
1 IR out, 2 12VDC trigger outs, 2 Sherwood
DigiLink, 2 switched AC outlets
Dimensions: 17.4" × 7.8"× 17.8" (W×H×D)
Weight: 51.8 lbs
Price: $1999.95
Sherwood America
(800) 962-3203
www.sherwoodusa.com
Lawrence E. Ullman
>AV RECEIVER
Electronically reprinted from
DECEMBER 2004
www.UltimateAVmag.com
First Impressions Last
No sooner had the UPS driver pulled away
from the curb than I had the Sherwood
unpacked and up on a table under bright
lighting. The brushed-aluminum, or
“Titanium”-finish front panel looks expensive,
giving the impression of having been
machined out of a solid block—at least when
seen head on. From the sides, you can see that
the panel is actually a single formed aluminum sheet about one-tenth of an inch
thick, capped by gray plastic end pieces.
The overall look is clean and understated.
A pair of large knobs and ten small, lighted
buttons are symmetrically arranged around a
large fluorescent display. All of these controls
feel great in the hand, turning with silky
weighted motions and engaging with positive
tactile feedback. Rows of additional buttons
and the renamable Video 6 input suite (composite video, S-video, stereo analog audio, and
optical digital audio) are located behind a
dropdown door. Everything is labeled with
white, screened-on text, which looked elegant
on my brightly lit dining table, but later
proved hard to read when the unit was on a
shelf in a dark theater.
This is a big component, so be sure to
check that your equipment cabinet or rack
has at least 20–24 inches of free depth to
accommodate the unit, including room for
cable clearance.
Under the Hood
Removing the R-965’s top panel (don’t try
this at home!) was like looking under the
hood of a Porsche. The chassis is beautifully
packaged and laid out. Someone clearly
sweated the signal-routing details here—
everything in my unit was spic and span,
with nary a stray wire harness in sight.
There’s even a nifty wire bridge that channels and hides the few wires that must traverse the chassis’s width. Sherwood logos
decorate the wire bridge, as well as the
power supply’s massive 6-inch-diameter
toroidal transformer and twin 2700µF filter
capacitors. I’ve seen megabuck high-end
amps that don’t look this good inside.
Photos © 2004 Cordero Studios
ULTIMATE AV | DECEMBER 2004
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