Sherwood Newcastle R963-RT and V-768T

Sherwood gets it right

By Tony Davey

August 2003

Sherwood Newcastle R963-RT receiver ($2899) and Sherwood Newcastle V-768T DVD player ($1299)

The Sherwood Newcastle brand may not be as recognizable as the likes of Denon, Yamaha and Marantz but they have been around for over 50 years. Their plant in Korea is one of the larger OEM plants for other “known” brands (they make many products with other manufacturers names on the front). Sherwood claim their components are superior to many equally priced or more expensive competitors’. A bold claim, but can they make good on it?

The R963 RT is a seven-channel receiver with all the features required in today’s home theatre environment. All the usual home theatre surround modes are there and available in five, six or seven channels and inputs (video and audio) are plentiful (including component switching).

The receiver is rated at 7 x 120 watts so there is no shortage of volume. I found myself listening at what I thought was reasonable listening levels, but I was unable to hear the Mrs speak.

The R963 has the ability to use two channels to power speakers in another room, making it an all in one multi-room capable machine and they are even good enough to pack a second remote, nice touch.

Of worthy mention is the remote control that comes with the receiver. It is fully programmable (either preprogrammed codes for other manufacturers equipment or via an IR learning function). It has an LCD screen and all the buttons are back-lit, making the remote the easiest one to use in a darkened home theatre I have come across.

The V-768T is a progressive-scan DVD player and RGB-capable scart outputs. It is finished in the same brushed titanium look as the receiver and has a solid feel about it, weighing in at just under 5kg.

Setting up both receiver and DVD player was via easy to navigate on screen menus (easy enough that the manuals were only quickly referenced, just to make sure).

As a combination package, and at about $4200 for both receiver and DVD player, the two Sherwood Newcastle components performed well.

I found the DVD image a little dark at first, but once I readjusted the settings on my projector, very pleasing with no problems portraying fine detail, and scenes with lots of shadow detail (Gladiator remains a true test for DVD players to get right and the V768 passed with flying colours). There were no apparent weaknesses to the picture, and a viewing of Monsters Inc left me in awe with its vibrant colours and sharp as a razor edges.

The sound is where I find myself a little perplexed. For CD listening, most music auditioned sounded good. Hard rock music (well, Pink Floyd) sounded good, with plenty of strength to the heavy electric guitars and drums and there were no troubles keeping a lively pace with modern/pop music (titles withheld due to embarrassment).

Acoustically inclined music is where the combo seemed to lose its way. Tracey Chapman’s New Beginning still had plenty of punch to the bass (no troubles driving my very power demanding Image Reference speakers), but I found the highs just a little overbearing when the volume was pushed too hard.

For home theatre, the combo worked well, I think preferring the somewhat compressed nature of a home theatre sound mix as at no point did the sound feel out of control.

Gladiator again remains a demanding disc to “get right” the soundtrack is full of everything that is good about home theatre, plenty of surround activity (both obvious and ambient) and the score by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard can readily sound screechy if equipment isn’t up to the task.

No risk whatsoever with this combo, the score had a wonderful richness to the sound, and even at high volumes, held its form. There is also a wonderful sense of immersion in the soundtrack through well controlled surrounds and my ever favourite low volume listening tests still left me smiling with no sign of the receiver losing any of its depth at low listening levels.

Bang for your buck remains an important factor and at $2899 for the receiver and $1299 for the DVD player, this combo has plenty of that and would certainly be a package worth auditioning.

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