Customer Reviews

Sherwood Rx4103 Remote-Controlled Stereo Receiver

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

 

 

This product sounded very good, and had some nice features like
an easy to use remote. But, within a week it had shorted out and
destroyed two speaker systems. Loud explosion in house, smell of
burning circuitry. Obviously, no output protection circuits. I am trying to get through to Sherwood, but they have not responded to phone calls or e-mails for almost two weeks and I am preparing to take my complaint to appropriate consumer protection agencies.
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Note, I emailed, called Sherwood several more times and even tried to get the company I bought it from involved, but never have had the courtesy of a response. Zip. Stay away.

This is an OK 2 channel reciever, however, the KLH R-3100, which is also 100 watts per channel, seems to have much better audio quality for about the same price.

Purchased the Sherwood RX-4103 receiver from J & R Music in New York City on-line here at Amazon.com and I must say I am quite pleased. I even received an e-mail with the UPS tracking number and website allowing me to track the package as it was being shipped to me. J & R Music promised the receiver via UPS today and they delivered. The stereo is everything I thought it would be and more. The sound quality is crisp and clean, with no noticeable distortion, and each pair of speaker outlets even has it's own amplifier. 105 watts per channel X 2 channels, but there are outlets (and amplifiers) for 4 speakers. The AM/FM tuner comes with a pair of antennea (one for each band) and the signal reception is quite good considering my location. The remote control will allow you to program and listen to 30 different radio stations which can then be scanned and listened to for 5 seconds each at the touch of a button; and then another touch halts the scan on the station playing the song you like. You can also adjust the treble and bass with the remote control, not to mention adjust the volume (there's even a mute button), the balance, and, believe it or not, activate a sleep timer for 10,20,30,40,50,60, or 90 minutes. There are also PLENTY of RCA jacks in the back of this black monster to hook up a cd/dvd player, cassette deck, VCR, and/or TV. You could even connect an i-pod or your computer's sound to the back of the amp, if you have the proper cables for your external devices. All in all, a lot of receiver for not a lot of money. I would highly recommend the Sherwood RX-4103 stereo receiver and J & R Music in New York City, purchased over the web, right here at Amazon.com.

Unless you are an audiophile,I believe this is an excellent receiver. True, it is very basic, but for the price you can't beat it. I wish it had an AC plugin in the back and a reverse speaker phase button.

I needed a receiver to drive 2 pairs of speakers. I have 1 pair in the house and 1 pair on my deck. The receiver is in the house. The deck side I installed an IF receiver to control the receiver with the supplied remote. The ability to switch speakers on the remote was exaly what I was looking for. Thanks.

When it comes to quality sound, simple is best. This solid-built machine delivers clear and vivid sound for a two channel stereo system with or without a subwoofer. I would recommend it to music lovers who don't want to pay hundreds for a receiver.

Sherwood RX 4103
(should be valid for the rx4105 and rx4109)

This thing worked for me for 7years (and now more), even with five years of enormous abuse (I didn't know I was slowly killing my receiver), it died eventually after 7 years (shuts off after 4 sec), contacted Sherwood technical support, they sent me a repair kit (just a few resistor, etc... they know what dies when it is abused), I fixed it by simply replacing all the component they sent me, and ta-da, works again like before, but now I know how to not abuse it...

Only thing I wish those receiver company told us in loud and big and clear is the info I'm putting below, on how to not abuse those machines... like I did unknowingly
I'm not an electric engineer in anyway, not even close, I know basic high schol electronic from physics class, and how to use a soldering gun...

Very easy to abuse them, I guess that explains why cheaper receivers die more often, most likely because people buying cheaper receiver, like me in the beginning, don't know that much about plugging speakers, who would have thought there was more to it that just plugging speakers... there are ohm rating to follow too...
I was just very unaware at the time... like most people with dying machines I bet... but I know better now, let me share my wisdom (thanks to what I read on the internet):

In a word total, for this Sherwood, speakers workload should not be below 8ohm per channel (left or right) (anything above in ohm is totally safe, you can run 16ohm, 32ohm, etc....)... this may sound like gibberish to some people, did for me not too long ago, let me explain through example of common setup

ohm rating is usually found directly on the speaker, on a small sticker..

Common setup - 2 Speaker setup:

CORRECT: pair of 8ohm speaker(preferably, but you can do more, like 16ohm, audible volume will be lower for same volume value)
WRONG: pair of 4ohm (or 6ohm) speakers (but will not die on you instantly,may last a few month to a few years or more, but I don't recommend it anyway)

Common setup - 4 Speaker setup (the way it is it actually run speaks of left channel in parallel, same with right channel, meaning, your ohm are smaller value)
CORRECT - two pair of 16ohm Correct (actual ohm rating per channel will total 8ohm, R = 1/(1/16+1/16) = 8ohm)
WRONG - two pair of 8ohm (actual ohm rating per channel will total 4ohm, R = 1/(1/8+1/8) = 4ohm) (but will not die on you instantly,may last a few month to a few years or more, but I don't recommend it anyway)
WRONG - two pair of 4ohm (actual ohm rating per channel will total 4ohm, R = 1/(1/8+1/8) = 4ohm) (but will not die on you instantly,may last a few month to a few years, but most likely will die eventually, but I don't recommend it anyway)

WHAT I DID (Mostly WRONG and VERY WRONG):
bought it new...
3 YEARS, with pair of 8ohms and a pair of 4ohm, total = 2.6ohm (very BAD)
then
2YEAR:
one channel with, an 8ohm a 4 ohm, total is 2.6ohm (very BAD)
second channel an 8ohm and two 4ohms, total is 1.6ohm (this is ridiculously CATASTROPHIC, even "strong" expensive receiver probably won't last long on this setup
after 5 years of abuse it is still running fine (which is rather amazing for such an inexpensive receiver)
then
2Years of correct use, with a pair of 8ohms
and FINALLY after 7 years (most with abuse) on a day the wind took down the power in my neighborhood, so a power anomaly was likely (due to possible short circuit in the power network), may have weakened the already weakened receiver due to my past abuse... after power came back the machine worked for 10mins then died, the power failure day, may have been a coincidence, but anyway with that abuse it is an amazing machine.

BUT this receiver's life is not over, thanks to the sherwood repair kit, that same abused sherwood is running happily again, one of the channel now has new electronic components (mostly resistors and a few transistor, total of about 10 components) replacing the old abused and weakened ones... the other channel (the least abused I supposed, but have no way to check) is still running perfectly great with the same old electronic components....

I'm now running a pair of 8ohms, the Correct way...

HOW TO RUN MANY SPEAKER SAFELY (not for picky audiophile):
I have learned that having more than 2 speakers is actually easy without abuse, instead of parallel circuit, they have to be run in series.... I ran an 8ohm and a 4 ohm of one channel, due to the difference in resistance, the 4ohm is louder than the 8ohm... so may not be the best experience, but if you run two speakers in series with similar ohm rating they should all have the same volume and sound good (maybe not to a nitpicky audiophile, but to most people it should be very enjoyable). As long as they add up to 8ohm or above you are totally safe...
How to run speakers in series:
plug positive wire of one speaker into the receiver, the negative wire (usually a black line is visible compared to the positive wire, or may simply be all black ) connected to the positive wire of the second speaker, and the negative wire of that second speaker back to the receiver.
(ohm rating in series is easy, you just add the values, so two 4ohm speaker will happily work on this receiver, because they add to the target 8ohm; similarly two 8ohms would make a total of 16ohm, only difference with a total of 16ohm is that audible volume may be lower for a same volume value, but at least is totally safe for the receiver)
The drawback with this is that a pair of speaker cannot be individually disabled from the other pair since they are in series (if you know really basic electric circuitry, have some speaker wire and a switch, you can easily built a three way switch for running pair one or pair two or both together)

Final word:
after it died (I had no knowledge about all this above at that point), I was ready to buy another one, only because they are the cheaper receiver around and lasted 7years, $79 (got a rebate at the time) for seven years of good sound, is well worth it...
but now knowing what I did wrong, and the fact that I realize that it worked for years even with enormous abuse, I would be ready to buy another one... but I'm not since I got mine repaired myself... and I know it is just those few components that died because of my abuse, everything else still works wonderfully great... at this point I'm not sure this will ever die (if I every need a second receiver I would buy one of the series rather than another brand, rx4109 seems to have a similar electronic board design with minor upgrades)

SO, if you need only stereo, I DO RECOMMEND IT (at this point I would probably get the RX4109 since this one is probably discontinued in our days).
only thing I would like would be a better equalizer (4 steps at least...), this only has Bass/treble, but not a deal breaker...
I'd rather spend less on the receiver and more on speakers than the other way around (I know some would argue, and I know their point and in many ways I agree, but if there is a limited budget that's what I would do), with of course the acknowledgement that this receiver is pretty decent sounding, so it's not like we are starting at the cheapest sound device (like a $40 amp which technically would drive speakers)

I needed I stereo reciever for my garage. Nothing too fancy or expensive. This fit the bill. I would not have this as my primary unit in my home, as it's 'bare bones". But it's just what I was looking for. Works well, sounds fine, great price.

My receiver worked fine until I started adjustng the FM wire loop antenna. One end of the 'T' touched the TV screen, where static electricity is always present to some degree. I heard a small snap sound, like when my hand touches the screen (no current so it is not hazzardous to your health), and the receiver stopped receiving the station I was tuned to, and from there on only picked up one station. Not only that, but my directv RCA receiver box to which the receiver is connected via audio cables failed and I had to buy another one, along with returning this receiver for a replacement. Considerng other reviews here, I would dinitely not recommend buying this receiver, even if the price is low.

I've had this unit for several years and use this as a homemade "second zone" receiver to power my patio speakers. The only input is from the "tape out" RCA jacks from a pioneer that powers an indoor theater set-up. It can certainly do more, but it was cheap alternative for simple power amplification. I have a large backyard, and I never have this higher than half-volume with plenty of clean power. The radio tuner is decent too.