Customer Reviews

Sherwood RD-8601 6.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver with Dolby Digital and DTS Decoding

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just set this unit up there are a few things that are different than the description, one being that there are 2 optical digital inputs and 1 Coaxial digital input and there is 1 digital optical output and 1 Coaxial digital output. That's fine with me as I would rather have more digital optical inputs if you actually could read the back of the unit in the picture you would see that I am correct. Setting the surround sound feature with the mic is awesome, I love this gadget. The only real issue that I have is that the unit I received does not have the Sherwood name anywhere on the product/ box or manual what it does say is QG-500AVR SLS I did find that the QG stood for quick gold but not sure about the rest as of yet I am still researching it. The remote was made for someone who works for Nasa but I was able to figure out the things that I needed to use, I still have a ton to learn about the remote. I did hook up the unit and it was very easy and has great sound, but I only use the optical inputs so I don't know the sound of the rest of the inputs. I only have 5 speakers and one sub set up so I can only use the 5.1 speakers but I have another speaker on the way so that I can hook it up to use the 6.1, when I do I will update my review again.
*********UPDATE*********
Here is the responce that I got from the company on the Name not being Sherwood:
Thank you for your Amazon order.

This SLS branded receiver is a Sherwood RD-8601 receiver, it is rebranded with an SLS name. It is exactly the same as Sherwood RD-8601 except for the logo.
SLS is a high end audio company who contracted Sherwood to build these receivers for them to sell as a home theater package. You can see this home theater package here : [...] LineHomeTheater
We have no control over the pic on Amazon, it is just a listing, our listing does state that this is a rebranded receiver. We have sold hundreds and all our customers are very happy with the quality, especially seeing the low price they paid.
Let us know if you need additional assistance, we will be happy to help.
Best regards,
The Av Express Sales Team
[...]

I am still very happy with this product it has great sound and does a great job with Blueray and digital TV.

I bought this as a sensibly priced replacement unit after my Sony receiver petered out on me suddenly. I have always been a fan of Sony products, but for some reason that receiver went bad again after it had been repaired before (and to be frank, it went another 18-months after the repair, but still). Money at the time was tight, and I have not made the upgrade to HD or BluRay as I still have a huge Tube TV.

I frantically searched and reviewed all that was available and this Sherwood unit caught my eye. Now that I have it (the company that full-filled the order shipped extremely fast FedEx for free) and have used it for coming on five-weeks now, I can say, it is excellent. In compairison, to the Sony it replaced, it doesn't seem as powerful, but it has a clear and rich sound and very distinct surround sound separation. To my pleasant surprise, it came with a microphone for automatic speaker adjustment. The very cool thing is that all inputs are up-switched to the component video out, and this is something even my Sony couldn't do. In fact, it's a rare feature that I think should be commonplace in any surround receiver. For instance, my VHS player only does composite video, but DVD, Wii and PS2 have S-Video, well the unit's outputs all of them through the component video.

As I say, for the price, this unit is an outright steal. Great quality at a price that makes it easily affordable. If you want a good, inexpensive surround receiver, (for the kids or game room, or secondary TV area, bedroom, whatever)and have not yet made the leap into the Hi-Def world, you cannot go wrong with this guy.

Several months ago, I wanted to set my home theater up for surround sound. After quite a bit of research, I settled on this unit and ordered it. I received it promptly (the day after Thanksgiving, no less), and set it up. Now that I've given it a thorough test drive, I wanted to share my opinion. Even with just the old speakers I had at the time and no sub-woofer, it sounded great. I was really pleased with all of the different audio settings for both analog and digital sources. I did want to mention one nice feature that no one else has mentioned. It's listed as having 3 video inputs, with the choice of composite, S-video, or component on two of them, and just composite on video 3 (the one on the front). In reality, you can connect seven separate video devices at once. For example if you connect three game consoles to video 1, one on composite, one on S, and one on component, the receiver will automatically select the strongest signal (the console that's in use). So you can have three separate devices connected to video 1 and video 2 at the same time. And all selections output on one component connection to the TV, with simplifies things. Unfortunately, there's no HDMI, but that's easy enough to work around, and that's probably why this unit has come down in price so much. My only real complaint is that there's no button to select between the digital inputs on the remote. You have to navigate through the on screen display to do that. It's no big deal though. I really love this unit, especially for the price.

I'm very happy with this receiver. The description was accurate, and the sound quality is very nice. I did have trouble with the automatic speaker setup, and had to set them up manually, but the instructions were clear on how to do that. I don't recall the listing pointing out that the unit is rebranded, but I was aware of that fact when I purchased the unit, having read it in another review. I downloaded the manual from Sherwood and compared it with the manual that came with the unit, and the illustrations and instructions are functionally identical.

The bottom line for me is, I got a better unit than many of those I looked at before purchasing this one, and paid less money. Shipping was much quicker than I expected. All in all, I'm very pleased!

Very Nice AMP for the $$$$ really makes watching movies on my big screen seem like I am in a real movie theater.
Great sound on cd's too.

Actually for the money I'd give this a 5 star rating but gave it a 4 star for 2 reasons. I didn't like that it does not say Sherwood on it anywhere nor in the manual either, therefore It should not be avertised as Sherwood. It appears to be part of a sound system that can be purchased separately but it states 100 Watts per channel into 6 ohm, which most standard speakers are 8 ohm so therefore it's probably only 75 watts for most applications though the head-room and THD are other important specs to consider as well. The bottom line is I wanted the least expensive remote controlled amplifier I could find for the bedroom with a Digital Fiber Optic Input and this was it, $140 delivered to my door but some people may want to do their' home work to be sure of what they are buying.

The shipping only took a few days and came earlier than anticipated. The box was received in perfect conditions. After reading the instructions all installations went well and the receiver has the capability of connecting numerous devices. I was even able to use the old speakers with no problems at all. The sound is fabulous with connections for seven speakers.

I purchased the Sherwood RD-8601 6.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver with Dolby Digital and DTS Decoding to replace an older home theater receiver that burned up. I have had this new one for a about a month now and I like it better than the one I had before. The speaker microphone is a nice option. All the speakers set up correctly the first time. The only thing I had a problem with this unit is that it still overheated in my cabinet. I know it said not to put it in a cabinet but that is the only place I have available. What I did was went to RadioShack and bought a 120 V cooling fan that connected to the outlet in the rear of the unit. I do not have any cooling problems anymore. That corrected the problem. I have used this unit for about a month now and am now enjoying the different sound effects and home theater quality sounds. I have 6+1 sub and it sounds great. It is hooked up to DirecTV via RCA cables and still sounds great. I received it in good condition on the day that it was promised, with no damage or anything missing. I cannot wait to hook up my DVD player to it so I can watch movies with all that new sound.

I recommend Sherwood RD - 8601 to anyone wanting to upgrade his or her sound system or to improve the sound coming from your TV. There are better systems out there but this one is good for the price and not cheaply built. The few times I did overheat this new one, the system shut off before any damage could occur. My old one did not do that. I also like the sleep timer feature.

Love the product, will buy Sherwood again. Great price from Amazon and shipping service was fast!

this item was listed as new but when I got it, it was old and dirty.I tried to get a refund from Amazon but I got a snotty email back saying it didn't qualify for a refund . I contacted the seller and that sent a snotty leter back and said every thing thay sell was used BUT the listing clearly said NEW. the isssue is still un resolved to this day .