Used NEw Castle yesterday for the first time. It was a R-671. Out of the box, the ir remote doesnt work. Go to do a brief demo, and the digital portion crapps out on me, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CUSTOMER. Only way I can get audio now is w it set to analog. I just get a flashing "digital" icon when set to optical or coaxial on DVD OR DBS.

This is the same thing my personal Denon 3802 does, but it at least waited years to fail, not hours.

I seem to recall being told by the Sherwood rep that they are made by Denon anyway. IS this true? Should I be concerned? Is Denon crap, or is my LUCK crap? Are failure rates on the Sherwood NC pieces high, or is this just another indication of my crappy luck?

Thanks

Never had that issue with Denon sorry mate think you need to find a four leaf clover

Dog

The only time I had a digital input issue (the customer caused it) problem with a Newcastle receiver it was due to the digital input being set incorrectly for the source.

Depending on what part of the display is flashing, it usually is an indicator that either the signal is not making it into the unit, or that the signal, while arriving, can't be processed since the receiver isn't set properly.

If you fire the unit back up check to see if the digital input is set to auto, rather than PCM, etc.

Also you can try a unit reset and see if that'll work. Sorry, can't remember which two buttons you have to press to do a reset, but your rep should know that one.

And I never had a problem with one of the remotes, other than the buttons are much smaller than my fingers...lol

Kind of surpised you're having problems with a Newcastle piece. I've used the line for years (since the inception), and have had no more than 2 or 3 bad pieces in all that time. Very reliable products as a rule.

And yes, Sherwood does oem some Denon, H-K and other pieces as well....

Sherwood makes the products for Denon, HK, Etc. not the other way around.

Bob

Quote: "If you fire the unit back up check to see if the digital input is set to auto, rather than PCM, etc."

Ive seen what your referring to, but thats not what this was. It was right in the moddle of a demo. (i.e., no inputs options were changed) Went back this mrning, and it still had the same problem. NO didigtl audio, only analog. (w DVD) This fact, combined w the remote IR not working, and the fact that my Serwood rep told me this was an identiucal replacement to an older model w 3 rear panel video inputs (NOT, only 2) I just canned the AVR all together. Picked up a Marantz at All@#t, (SR4500) and all worked fine....... for about 5 mins. SAME demo DVD (Ice age), smae general part of the demo (ice mountain breaking), this time not as high a volume level, and NOT in front of the client. You guessed it, lost digital audio! WTF! Powered off the AVR, re-checked "auto", etc. All ok. Swapped out w another DVD player for kicks. Works fine now. Ok, but I STILL want to make sure, so I swap BACK to the original DVD player. NOW, ot works again. So I have NO idea WTF is going on. Stillworking as of now, but I have been afraid to really put any tests to it.

BTW, I could have SWORN I lost digital audio on dbs AS WELL w the Sherwood piece yesterday (ruling out the DVD player), but now that they're both working so far, I may never know.
But TWO different AVR's, and TWO different brands, seems to point to "operator error", but who the fu@# knows. All speakers are phased correctly, no shorts in speaker cables, re-checked digital input selection, etc etc.

FWIW, the Marantz looks SOOOO much more exquisite compared to the Sherwood. Maybe its just the black verses silver finsih, but the Marantz just says "quality" on the front. Maybe its just me.

I've thought about Newcastle several times, but then again, I don't think that I have the energy left to promote a line that nobody's heard of only to see them years later to go into distribution like Marantz did.

New Castle maybe not, but Sherwood? Thats a pretty highly recognized name in quality A/V isnt it?

Curious, what do you promote? Im always looking for opinions.

30 years ago it was.


I promote nothing in mainstream component lines. I typically use a lot of Denon because they always work and rarely break, but as far as promoting lines, I'll leave that to Best Buy/Magnolia and I'll start reaping the benefits of having someone else make something a household name for a change.

I've had the proverbial stick broken off in my *ss one too many times.

I personally like Denon as well,and have one at home.



But after my OWN Denon losing digial audio,and than having the Sherwood (Denon) piece lose digital audio as well, Im starting to wonder.

To each his/her own.

Rebuffed by Denon, Marantz and the like, I went with the Sherwood Newcastle line years back, and it's remained the main line for my company since.

Have a bad piece? I get nothing short of fantastic service from the company. The product back up is without comparison.

Very agressive about online sales as well. You see the product on line, they WILL go after the offending party (can't say that about most oft he others).

Do you go direct, or a manufacturers rep? Im going through a rep, who obviously didnt know the new line well enough when he told me the 671 was an exact replacement for the 756.

That's an interesting comment. In a sense, it could work the other way. You could promote that product and possibly ralize some good profit margin on it due to it's current "esoteric" presence in the market. Sherwood wouldn't be my line of choice for that strategy however.

The Sherwood name doesn,t do much for me.

I've got a bad taste in my mouth from the mid-80's car amps, available at the local 'song and bong'.

I hated putting those POS's in!

They drew more current than my 300 amp mig welder and produced about as much sound!

Hopefully there 'new' home line is a lot better!

I almosy forgot my favorite saying when someone brought one in.

"Sherwood be nice if it worked!!!!"

This message was edited by pilgram on 07/03/05 02:50 ET.

A problem I see, with regards to some of these posts, is that the Newcastle line is being thought of as being the same as the standard Sherwood line, and that is way off the mark.

The standard Sherwood line equates to the standard, cosumer level, Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo, Technics, H-K, Sony and the like.

The Newcastle line is a more upscale "custom" level line. Actually more in tune with Marantz, B&K, NAD, etc....

And speaking of a product "that used to be" is silly. How many times have you had a customer speaker very highly of a Sony item that is 15-20 years old? And you have to remind them that what Sony did back then doesn't really relate to this day and age.....

How many of those great old products don't even exist any longer? So much for "it was a great product" thinking.....No?

What's the entry level Newcastle receiver that has video upconversion and how much does it cost?