Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Inexpensive Surprise - Sherwood RX-4109, October 12, 2008
I'm an old audiophile, dating back to when "MacIntosh" was not the name of a computer. It was the company name of the most prestigious of hi-fi components. What dismays me is that today's manufacturers of audio equipment (some of them well known brands) rely on the ignorance of the consumer when it comes to audio specifications; and they can get away with it because there no longer seems to be any standards for those specifications. For example, a manufacturer can claim that an inexpensive 15 watt amplifier puts out 500 watts, and that amplifier actually can accomplish that feat at "peak" output at one frequency with very high distortion. Match that amplifier up with very efficient speakers; and voila...you have harmonic cacophony now called a "boom box."
Enough of that....I was looking for an inexpensive, basic, but decent stereo receiver for one large room. Surround sound annoys me. (When you attend a live orchestral concert, the orchestra is in front of you.) After comparing many (some for almost twice the price), I decided on this Sherwood for less than $100. I was apprehensive that its low price might reflect its quality. I was wrong. It is solidly built. I am running acoustic suspension sealed cabinet speakers (no need for a separate bass woofer) that require 20 very clean watts each just to get any response out of them. This amplifier, turned up one third, drives them more than adequately with no discernable distortion...almost as good as my old top-of the line Marantz. What's more you can use this as a base amp by pressing a button on the front ("TON DIRECT"...somewhat cryptic) and disabling the tone controls so that the amp runs flat, allowing for a separate equalizer. (The manual isn't very good about explaining this. In fact, the manual isn't very good about explaining anything.)
Another thing...with 8 ohm speakers, this amp doesn't even get warm, so you can pile stuff on top of it (with a little space in between) without worry.
The FM tuner is fine enough. The AM tuner (at least at my location) is above average, which is unusual in even $400 receivers.
This receiver has a phono input for those who still listen to the pops, the static, and the warp distortion of vinyl. All the other inputs are at the same impedance, so you can hook up anything else to any input regardless of its label, i.e. your dvd player can be plugged into the "tape" input. Unfortunately, if you do so, "TAPE" will be displayed on the front fluorescent panel when you play your dvd.
Don't expect a lot of toots and whistles; but you can expect a good solid product with performance factor that far exceeds its modest cost.
Would I recommend this receiver to a friend? ...yes and no. Most of my friends do not know a thing about audio and believe everything they read...which doesn't say much about me and my choice of friends.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely good value UPDATE JUNE 2009, June 3, 2007
UPDATE JUNE 2009. What can I say, this unit runs almost continuously in the summer, I turn it off in the winter. It's running under a 6 ohm load which is really pushing it. I have 3 pairs of outdoor speakers with separate impedence matching volume controls, that sort of help with the impedence, and this thing has held up really well. If I crank the volume too high (like really loud) due to the low impedence it will go into protection, but that's not the fault of the unit, it's rated at 8 ohms.
So, in all this has been a great purchase.
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I have what appears to be the BESTBUY version of this receiver, the Insignia NS-R2000. It is identical in all respects, except for the name, and the remote control even works with the Sherwood. So, with that in mind, I replaced a Sherwood 4105 with this unit. I have 3 pairs of speakers connected to impedence matching transformer volume controls. 2 pair are 4 ohms and 1 pair is 8 ohms. The transformers are supposed to present an 8+ ohm impedence to the receiver.
With the 4105 the receiver would go into protection if I put the volume control on -50. I have now run the same speaker configuration with the 4109 for 18 hours and it has worked fine.
In most other respects, this is very similar to the 4105. Exceptions are that the 4109 has much better speaker binding posts and the remote control has bass and treble controls. The 4105 has satisfactory spring loaded speaker connectors and lacks the tone controls on the remote. The 4109 also has a Phono input.
I would say that all of the comments on the 4105 apply to this unit as well. I seems underpowered for a 100w/channel amp. But I am driving outdoor speakers and I don't want them to get very loud anyway.
For the money, this is an extremely good value. I am not sure how they do it. I have paid more money for earbud headphones. This unit was $70 after all the spiffs.
Oddly, this unit does not show up on the Sherwood website, either as a current or discontinued model.
It should be noted that all of the receivers I have looked at in this price range only support a minimum total load of 8 ohms.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound and construction on a budget, November 24, 2007
This receiver is one of the bangs for the buck for any hi-fi enthusiast. For such a low price, you can get sound quality that rivals most home theater systems that cost much more money. Less is definitely more in this case. The discrete amplification really helped improve the sound quality of well mastered music media, and the radio signals are decent on stations that do not use lots of compression. The option to add 2 pairs of speakers is a plus so that you can use it in a smaller room or a larger room and the sound still feels like it surrounds you with the dynamics fully intact. The phono input is a must for me as I have a huge vintage vinyl collection, so that was a selling point for me. Since the sound quality and the build quality are both excellent, I don't end up having to upgrade to anything else.
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