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On another site there was someone who has a chance to buy 1 of several receivers including a STR6120. He was thinking of using it with a set of Bozak 302s. My 6120 has been sitting on the sidelines for a few years, how fast time flies. The big problem with it is it will not fit in the Barzilay cabinet that I use. In the past I have been torn between its sound and the sound of the earlier STR-6060FW that has a voicing similar to a tube McIntosh.
I sold the 3 STR-6060s this past January when I went through a downsizing but kept the STR-6120 as the buyer also bought my Sherwood SEL-200 and Fisher 600. Yeah, he picked up an inventory of receivers while I freed up some much needed space.
As the thread on the other site continued, it drew me in until I decided to have my kid pull the STR-6120 out of storage so I could hook it up. This would be the first time listening to it without the STR-6060s to compare it with and hence not that distraction. I've been using th Sherwood S9500c amp on the Bozak Symphony, a 20 watt rms per channel amp and the minimum that Rudy recommended for these speakers. Along with it I've been using the early version of the S3300 FM only Sherwood SS tuner. The combo replaced the Sherwood tube pairing I had with absolutely no regrets; this pair really sings but because of the power I had to watch the peaks on the Bozaks to keep the amp away from clipping. Hence, the average listening level is well, polite. As I do not normally listen to music loud, it has not been a real issue for me. Biggest loss is in the bass where those twin 12" woofers in each large cabinet seem to scream -"I lust for more power". I could still get the chest feeling the bass but not like when I put 200 watts or even 105 watts into those big speakers.
The Sony is rated at 58 watts from memory, conservative to say the least. On hooking the Symphonys to it the first thing that hit was the bass. Yeah, baby power can count for something. I also compared both on the Klispch Heresy IIs and the ADS L-300s both of which the Sherwood is a better match with and here the power difference did not matter. But, as the OP on the other site was asking about the Bozaks, I settled in on them for comparison.
Maybe I am getting old but, the initial reaction was gee, I do not miss my McIntosh C28/MC2105 on the speakers as I listen to the Sony. In some ways I like it better. The bass seems tighter and faster plus better controlled. Maybe an instance when autoformers get in way of the music though Rudy voiced the Symphonys and Concert Grands with McIntosh amps.
The Bozaks were designed during a period when the high end was rolled off to eliminate high frequency hissing from tapes and records and many source pieces and maps and preamps were down quite a bit by the time they got to 16khz. With some amps the rolloff of the Bozak tweeters added to the equipment rolloff is just too much. The Sony is one unit where the high end rolloff does not seem to be noticed at all. Overall sound is extended and balanced. The bass is not overpowering as with may speaker systems as there is no hump at about 75-100 hz. But when the music calls for bass, the Sony is delivering it cleanly and with the right amount of authority.
Vocals are right on better than I remember the McIntosh. Yes, you read that right. Here is the shocker, I also found the Sherwood to do better than the Mc system with vocals on the Bozaks. The presentation shows no signs of anything but very easy delivery, no strain or stress as happens with many speaker systems. But, we are talking about a 11 driver system large enough to use as a coffin.
The tuner on the 6120 seems a bit more antenna sensitive than the Sherwood. I am using a ribbon dipole on each and as the Sony is a 5-gang tuner I'd have thought the opposite. It is supposed to be an offshoot of the famed ST-5000 Sony tuner, one of the better out there. The Sherwood seems to pull and lock in easier without having to play with the antenna. With both for orientated to their greatest signal strength the Sony is as quiet as the Sherwood and I do not hear a whole lot of difference between them but I am not DX'ing or listening to stations that possibly would make a difference by being further away. Considering the Sherwood was from a period when the engineers were running the company and the company was instrumental in designing equipment for the radio stations multiplex systems, it is a tribute to them as to how good the tuners are while being so simplistic. Think of the S3000 just converted to SS. The presentation of each is hard to evaluate unless I feed one onto the amp of the other which I may do later to see how the tuners do against each other. I would expect the Sony to rule the day for at the time they were shooting at the McIntosh and totl from Marantz as their market niche. Sherwood was not caught up in the warfare but amazingly easily kept up with the best of them by having excellent basic designs and continually improving on them rather than continually going back to the drawing board for all new designs.
I did run a record on each though had to use different tables. One the Sherwood, I had the Thorens TD 160 with the ADC XLMII Super and on the Sony the Empire 598 with the Pickering 4500/QX with Shibata stylus. I've found the Sherwood phono preamp to be quite good, nothing wrong but at the same time not outstanding just like the rest of the amp right. The Sony was a horse of a different color. Good enough to be used as an outboard phono preamp. A might on the sweet lush side but so smooth. My Pickering never sounded as good.
I'll be listening more to the pair until the 29th when I go into surgery but, I suspect the SOny will be staying on the Bozaks while the Heresys will be on the Sherwoods henceforth though I am not sure how to overcome the size issue and limitation of the Barzilay.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
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Topic - Sony STR-6120 Re-evaluation - Brian Levy 10:02:16 11/20/11 (0)
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