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In Reply to: RE: Which tube integrated to keep forever? Pilot or Sherwood? posted by goofytwoshoes on December 02, 2014 at 17:04:13
I was in the business at the time they made these tube units. We stocked and sold Sherwood, Pilot, Scott, Fisher, H-K, Dyna, Eico and McIntosh electronics. We had KLH Nines on demo, and Bozak Symphonies.
I recall liking Sherwood but not favoring it over -- say -- Pilot. Perhaps it had something to do with the cartridges and speakers of the era. Perhaps Sherwood was better than we knew. It is also possible that Sherwood benefits more from modern component upgrading.
Anyway, it was not obvious to us that there was anything inherently superior about Sherwood, and if anyone had suggested, as someone here did, that a Sherwood amp was comparable to a Mac MC225, well...
Follow Ups:
That is not as surprising to me as the almost universal acceptance of the early, horrible sounding solid state equipment.
Actually, I am not that surprised at what you say. When I sold audio equipment in the 80's, we sold Yamaha separates. However, I did not pay much attention to them. I had a Conrad Johnson preamp and a VSP amp in my system, and I was far more interested in the Tandberg, Revox, Adcom and Perreaux separates to pay much attention to the Yamahas. Then I picked up a Yamaha C4/M4 for dirt cheap and my eyes were opened up. These things really sounded great. I current use a Yamaha C-2x preamp and I like it so much, I really am not interested in looking at other preamps. However, in the 80's, I would not have considered Yamaha,
Think back, I'm guessing the Sherwood equipment was never tried on the KLH 9's or the Bozak Symphonies.
Dave
Obviously the Sherwood -- or any other integrated amp of the period -- would have been a mismatch to KLH Nines or Bozak Symphonies. We drove those speaker systems with an MC240.
You should have tried the MA230. Easily drove the Nines and has enough juice for the Symphonys, though I never had a chance to try it on the Bozaks. The MA230 was a nice sounding mate to the Nines provided you kept them below clipping. The maximum voltage the Nines can handle is 49.5 and the MA230 hovered right there.
I have driven my Symphonys with the S5000II. No problem unless you like to rattle windows.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Bozak Symphonies are sensitive enough to be driven by a Sherwood in a modest-sized room, and probably sound good. If you were spending $1000 (in the early 1960s) on a pair of speakers, however, you would not be likely to settle on a $200 (or so -- I don't recall the exact price) integrated amplifier.
The Nines, however, were another matter. With low sensitivity, and limited dynamic range and power handling, they presented a very different model. The MC240 we used was adequate and did not audibly clip, but you could hear a substantial difference when you substituted an MC275.
Hi Briggs.
My comment about selling "one" of my MC225's doesn't mean that I don't like them or that I think the S5000 has a better amp section.
I recently got a good deal on the Sherwood and found that it, combined with a much smaller pair of speakers I already had, pleases me enough to live with the combo.
It's the "compromise" I've been looking for and it's one heck of a bang for the buck because everytime the stylus hits the grooves it makes me happy and that makes it easier for me to sell some things off and put the money into things that would better serve me at this point in my life.
But I get what you mean about a funny thing.
When I see the current interest and going prices for some things I would never have considered when they were new, it amazes me.
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