Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Absolute AMAZING player! Uses the Cadillac of Burr-Brown chips to produce a sweet sweet sound with a huge 3-D soundstage. Highs are extended without ever being bright and the mids are like liquid honey. Produces lows that are tight, controlled and never boomy. The build quality is first rate. Built like a tank. You can listen for hours without any fatigue whatsoever. I've owned at least a half dozen CD players over the years including Rega, Marantz and the Arcam CD72T but the Sherwood wins handsdown. It's was also the least expensive of all my players. This machine has to be the audio bargain of the decade. I also bought it from Omer at OZ Enterprises and the $850.00 the previous reviewer paid was $850 Canadian with all taxes included. I found Omer at OZ Enterprises a great person to deal with. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Strengths:
SOUND! SOUND! SOUND! Build quality.

Weaknesses:
Not to crazy about the charcoal gray. Would have prefered black or silver but HEY who cares. I listen with my ears not my eyes.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz 67SE, Rega Planet, Arcam CD72T plus others.

Price Paid:  $850.00 from OZ Enterprises

Summary:
First, I'd like to thank Omer at OZ Enterprises in Ottawa for showing me this player. At first I didn't want to own a "Sherwood" but after he expained that the Newcastle was like Lexus versus Toyota, I understood the difference. I also looked at other players, including the Jolida tube cd player, Roksan Kandy, Rega Planet 2000, Arcam CD52, and a few other $1000 plus players on the market to replace my aging Yamaha cd player. I thought I'd have to spend at least $1000 to get better performance than I was with the Yammy, but I'm glad I waited for this player to arrive at OZ's showroom. It uses dual 20 bit Burr Brown DAC's, it also has a remote controlled variable output, which I love becuase I have the player hooked up to an integrated amp wihout remote so now, I can control the volume. The silver finish is also a nice touch. I'm SICK of all the black players out there! About the sound: SOLID, and very natural, not like a lot of other players in this price range. Details are 3 dimentional, and it brings out stuff in my cd's that I've never heard before. The midrange was better with the 980 than with more expensive players I auditioned. Very natural, latley I've found myself listening for hours. Highly recommended, and the service I got from OZ was THE BEST!!!!! Other system components: Rotel RA920 amplifier Angstrom Modular 2 speakers Clarity Labs interconnects and speaker cables Panamax power bar Target audio stands

Strengths:
Top notch sound quality, price/performance ratio, build quality - weighs 12 pounds, full featured remote, attractive styling.

Weaknesses:
none whatsoever!

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha CDC565 changer, demoed the Jolida, Roksan, Rega, and Arcam.

Price Paid:  $105.00 from ebay

Summary:
After getting a new receiver (the excellent Denon 3802) about a year ago and pairing it with a 5 channel amp to add oomph (the also excellent Newcastle AM-9080) the home theater side of my setup was outstanding. But the two channel stereo was still lacking although made much better by adding the amp. I've been using a Yamaha 5 disc changer for years and thought it sounded pretty good. Once I added the amp and discovered how much better it could sound I started to look for a change in the source component. I did the research and ran across a Rotel RCD-950 for a great price so I bought it and hooked it up using DH Labs BL-1 Series 2 interconnects. I then did some A/B tests with the Yamaha. The Rotel sounded better, but not as noticably as I expected. I had read great things about the Sherwood so I started hunting for one. Found a couple places selling for the retail price for new units, but knowing that there were a ton of them out there from Ubid and other places there was no way I'd pay $500! Finally found one on eBay and won it. WOW, now this was what I was expecting from the Rotel but didn't get! It sounds fantastic. When I added the amp it seemed like the sound went from listening in Black and White to listening in color - it was that much improved. When I added the C-980 it was a leap of at least that much again. I spent about 4 hours just running through all of my cds and listening to song after song that sounded better than it ever had before. Fuller, richer, deeper, great bass, great detail. Find one of these and give it a shot. It's a great player that you can find for so little $$ it's amazing!

Strengths:
Features, sound, detail.

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Rotel RCD-950 Yamaha CDC-755

Price Paid:  $250.00 from audiogon.com

Summary:
this is a follow up to my last review in sept. 2001. the unit gave me some problems with reguard to the remote and sensing unit in the main unit. when the remote was pointed at the unit it would immediately cause the player to go to a track and repeat that track over and over. nothing short of turning off the unit would sometimes correct the problem. bought another remote for $35 ...still did the same thing... this persisted for 2 months and for some reason corrected itself.. now it works fine.. i leave the unit on all the time so its always ready to give me peak perfomance, which it does... individual recordings perform better than others... but this unit is wonderful.. i wish that i would have had the opportunity to have listened to other players to the extent i have this one to make better comparisons..but from this unit alone its performance has been excellent...

Strengths:
two dimmer settings for the front panel lights..speed control (neat feature i use often) dual burr brown converters...

Weaknesses:
the unlighted remote (for $250 guess that''s asking for too much..) you''ll figure it out after several sessions in the dark..

Price Paid:  $137.00 from uBid

Summary:
I agree with Jim below. This is the second biggest steal that I made as well and MY biggest steal was also the Newcastle R-925 Receiver. I did pay a bit more for the receiver however ($307.00). Also see may review on the R-925 on this website.

In addition to the CD-980, I purchased its little brother the CD-680 changer at the same time and found it shares many of the qualities as the single player...just not on as grand of scale. The CD-680 uses 1-bit DACs instead of the 20-bitters found in this player. Also see my review on the Newcastle CD-680 on this website...it too is an absolute bargain.

Though some reviewers seem to disagree, I found that this player does need a considerable break in period to sound its absolute best. My player didn't live up to its fullest potential until my burn-in CD had played continuously for about two weeks (I feel 200 hrs is about the threshold where the gain in sound quality started to really trickle off). With this in mind it still has to be said, however, that this player held its own right out of the box and didn't display the usual "digititis" that most lower quality players exude...even after they are broken in.

Lets get to the low-down first. The bass is absolutely first rate on the CD-980. While it isn't the last word on extension (though it nearly equalled my $2000 CEC and my Yamaha/ Audio Alchemy combo in this area), the bass is articulate, tight, and very rhythmic. Unlike some players, the lower octaves did not seem detached from the rest of the musical drive. In a few words....I was very impressed. Still, on HDCD encoded discs, my Yamaha/Alchemy rig had more punch and realism. To the 980's credit, though, even the CEC couldn't match the outboard Audio Alchemy in this area.

Even better than the bass is this players mid-range...which is better than ANY player I've ever heard including Krell, Parasound, and lower Line Mark Levinson products (all of which retailed for a minimum of $3500.00). I found no trace of harshness or metalic flavor from the CD-980. A player that sounds too "bright" most often has a problem in the upper mid range and lower treble. The CD-980 obviously has no problem here. Try as I may, I couldn't find a disc to make it stumble. Even those digitized late 70's and early 80's rock dics sounded more natural than I've ever heard them. Incredible for a player that retails for $600, let alone that can be had for under $200!!

The upper frequncies are airy, if not a bit rolled off at the extreme...say above about 14kHz according to my test equipment. Still, even this roll-off doesn't effect the overal tonality or listenability.

Throw all of this together and you get a remarkble player that images very well. While, again, my Yamaha combo goes deeper and wider, the CD-980 matches it in placement and focus of the instruments. The CEC is actually third in this area. In fact, you may be forming an opinion that the CEC isn't such a great deal. While the CEC does sound very neutral, it certainly doesn't justify it's price being over 10 times that of my purchase price of this little Newcastle. Subsequently, I sold it a couple of months ago. The price/value equation simply faded away after I lived with the CD-980 for a while.

My advice is to buy this player. If you can get it for the price that I and some of the others purchased it for, buy three or four and give them as gifts to music-loving friends or family members for Christmas or a birthday. It's one sure-fire way to make that friendship last a long, long time.

Highly, highly recommended even at $250 or $300.
Remarkable value.

Strengths:
Sound quality that is on par with $2k players; nice, simple construction; sturdy, high quality transport

Weaknesses:
That darn remote

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha CDC 845 Changer/ Audio Alchemy 3.0 external DAC combo (HDCD compatable), CEC 5100Z, Newcastle CD-680 changer