Sherwood Newcastle separates; Analog plus?

[Audio Flynn]

I had been agonizing over the defeciencies I have heard in HT receivers of many price levels and brands in the past 8 months. I bought a cheap Kenwood HT receiver 3 years ago just to learn a little bit. The processed sound experienced with the Kenwood was still evident in alot of the $800 - $ 1500 newer receivers I was looking at. Interconnects, Bi wiring my RB5s, 12 inch sub and other upgrades were not getting me to where I wanted to be.

Frustrated by not being able to recreate experience of my early 80s analog system...

Dual 510 turntable with Ortofon cartridge

Denon PMA-730 Integrated AMP

Home Made 10 inch 3 ways, EV, Speco and Pyle components a hybrid design based upon 2 of my friends speakers I liked JBL 4311 and Klipsch Heresy

...in an HT system with CDs for the music front end; I was just going to take a chance on the NAD T 761 from Sound City for $ 750 plus shipping. I cannot afford real expensive gear.

God "called me" to this little HT storefront I had seen for a couple of years but had never stoppped in(my wife thinks that is my excuse for everything I buy). Real laid back guys most of their business is full house systems for people building $ 1,000,000 or more homes.

The guy showed me their current lines Monitor Audio, Energy, Parasound and Integra. After about 45 minutes he said you seem to know your stuff; we have these Newcastle separates but we had to retrieve them from an installation because the preamp is too complicated for most consumers, you may like them.

Well they gave me a week demo in the home and I bought them for $1100(origonal list $ 2400) including 3 year warranty, and Esoterec interconnects.

www.sherwoodusa.com/newcastle/sep_main.htm

Some of the features I am most impressed with:

-Analog pass through for Phono, CD and Tuner(I think)

-Owners manual states preamp has analog crossover to sub in analog mode(not sure how it is accomplished but sounds great)

-5 x 125 power amp weighs 70 pounds no fan runs at maybe 105 -110 degrees F when driven hard for a few hours

-good basic DD and DTS performance in digital mode(not that important to me but more than adequate for the family movies, blows away the Kenwood)

Liabilities:

-Universal remote is a pain to program and nearly useless.

-Power amp was a struggle to put in the entertianment center due to mass.

-small noise comes through spekers when switching sources

-every digital source needs to be programmed no automated search for digital source or standard speaker setup(not inconvenient for an audio geek)

Results

-voices both spoken and sung sound real, inteviews on some CDs like Ian Andeson and Paul McCartney

-CSNY harmonies never sounded better

-Piano has more depth; real stength in bass notes(we have an old piano in the home to compare to)

-J.S Bach Organ Chorales on NAXOS Wolfgang Rubsam on the Taylor and Boody organ is a great test disc; sounds like a church organ in my house now

-easily distiguish the sound of a Martin from a Guild accoustic guitar on CSNY accoustic music(I used to "do sound" and 4 track demo recording in High School and college for accoustic and rock bands; I remember pretty well what a real guitar sounds like, hence the Audio Flynn nickname)

-I am trying to determine( fun challenge I could not contemplate before) when Eric Clapton is playing through a Music Man and when he is playing through a Marshall amplifier; I think he is using a Music Man on the disc he did last year with BB King. BB sounds awesome vocally

-Dianna Krall, Patricia Barber, and Bonnie Raitt finally sound really sexy each in their own way

-reconfirmed how poorly mastered any of the Eagles CDs are, they ought to be ashamed of themselves

If you can find these separates as a demo or on the web for a good price I would consider them a high probability for success upgrade.

This is the most exited I have been about music in 3 or 4 years.

My system

-Klipsch RB5 mains biwired with AQ type 6 on Sanus steel 24 inch stands filled with 20 pounds of lead shot per stand

-Klipsch RC3 center

-Klipsch KSB 3.1 rears, Wood Technology MDF 28 inch stands

-Adire Audio Rava 12 inch front firing sub 275 watts 65 pounds sealed cabinet(knock off of M&K $1200 sub design for $400)

-Sherwood Newcastle AVP-9080R HT preamp

-Sherwood Newcastle AM-9080 5 x 125 power amp

-Kenwood CD-206 5 disc changer as a transport with Better Cables digital RCA interconnect

-MSB Link II DAC(unaltered at this time)

-Sony DVP-S530D DVD player

-Better Cables and Audio Quest interconnects

Next upgrade:

Interconnects, cartridge and vacuum record cleaner to get my Dual 510 turntable back on line