SOUND! SOUND! SOUND! Build quality.

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.

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!

Similar Products Used:

Marantz 67SE, Rega Planet, Arcam CD72T plus others.

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

none whatsoever!

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

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha CDC565 changer, demoed the Jolida, Roksan, Rega, and Arcam.

Features, sound, detail.

none

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!

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RCD-950 Yamaha CDC-755

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

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

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...

I heard good reviews from newcastle receiver ( r925) so I decided to get one. I saw that this CD players were on sale at a bargain so I immediately bought one.
When I went home, I listened to it with my audioresearch integrated amp and b&w 805 loudspeakers and was quite satisfied until after about 35 minutes, the sound quality degraded. I could hear hissing on my speakers. I checked my speakers and amps and found out that my new CD player was defective. I confirmed the problem and it seems that when the CD player is playing after 35 minutes, the problem comes back. When you turn it off and let it cool down, the problem goes away. I immediately returned it to the dealer for a prompt replacement. I was not able to test the replacement since I was in a hurry, but when I tried to turn it on and played my fave CD, I was horrified to hear that it gave a very poor sound and when I touch the CD player case, it gave a humming sound...poor grounding.

I had enough of sherwood, I returned it and had it replaced with a nakamichi CD player. The nakamichi CD player never gave me a problem. Beware dealer will try to dump stock and sell it real cheap. I bought new only $190

Sound; Build quality; Variable output; Dual digital outputs; Pitch control; Taping features

None, period.

I cannot say enough about this CD player. It sounds great, with all types of music. It is built like a tank, weighing in at 12 pounds. The Burr-Brown DACs are magic. The CD player sounds better than any I've heard for anywhere near it's list price, which was $450. I paid $157 (plus shipping) at UBID and could not believe the quality. I consider this the second best deal I've ever gotten on the Web (a Sherwood Newcastle R-925 receiver for $247, plus shipping is the best deal I've ever had). I bought the CD-980 for an office system and I liked it so much, I bought another for home, even though I had an older Philips/Magnavox CD player and a new DVD player that played CDs well. I like the Sherwood digilink III system, which works very well with the Sherwood-Newcastle R-525 and R-925 receivers I own.

Play jazz, rock or classical. The soundstage is vast, the sound dynamic, the bass is just punchy enough and the vocals seem to float on air. The transport is solid and very quiet. The CD-980 sits at arm's length at eye level next to my computer monitor and on top of the R-525 and a DD-980 cassette deck. If it made any noise, I'd hear it.

It comes packed with extra features, that I normally don't use, but could be of interest to some: pitch control, variable output (for connection directly to a power amp w/o a preamp), peak search, tape size and a host of other features.

If you can find this CD player for less than $250, buy it.

Similar Products Used:

Philips/Magnavox CD-560; Denon DCD-425; Teac CDP-1160

Hi
I write this review from my heart. I just international student in here and sorry about my language. I am audio enthusiast. I always buy stuff and resale it. The first, i began from solid- state amplifier and the finish with tube amplifier that make me all satisfy. Then cd player started from tube but i don't prefer to. I try maranzt first but this unit is normal sound and always harsh my ear. Nothing inpress at all . Then i try rotel 971. Oh god make me bliss everything is clear and the sound is airry , tight bass and more detail. I keep this unit as long as i can. Then i try acurus acd 11 the sound not clear as rotel but more texture and i feel the siger sing infront of me. It's hard to make decision which one i should keep. Finall, I saw some guy sell sherwood newcastle cd 980 at interesting price. I can't stand to buy it. Oh god unbeliveable price and quality, This unit sound is better than rotel 971 and cheapper,more clear and more detail. However, it can't compare with acurus acd 11 because of difference style of sound. Acurus sounds good for vocal of singer and sherwood newcastle sounds good for classical music, the pino and upper high sound is real good. I sell rotel and keep acurus and new castle.
Amplifier that i test orderly
1 dennon
2 adcom
3 linn
4 mcintoch
5 jolida (tube)
6 audio innovation (tube)
7 audioresearch (tube)
8 cary (tube)
I write this review base on my impression. If you interested this unit and want to buy cheap price as well as good bargain, i bought from this web site http://www7.bcity.com/bestbuy/. They sell 680 and 980
Ps i look inside this unit. It use really good materialand good quality. The importent thing is this unit has switch a and b to use two souces for two amplifier. That can make me switch to compare the sound between two amplifier and two speaker. That is good for me to test the sound of diferent system
C

Quality Construction, Price

None (in this price range)

Purchased on U-bid, even though I didn't need another CD player. Open soundstage, great bass, spot on in the midrange. This is a magnificient CD player. Quality build with more features than you'll ever need. It's as good as any machine I've auditioned in the $500.00 to $800.00 range.
Sounds terrible right out of the box (Only my Rotel RCD950
sounded this bad new). But play it for about three hours and
you'll be pleasantly surprised. The more I play it, the better is sounds. (you don't need 72 hours "burn in")

Thank you Sherwood for "dumping" this player via U-bid.
If it wasn't for that, I would not own this player today.
I stole this thing.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Cambridge Audio, Denon, Onkyo, Rotel

Solidly built, attractive styling, Burr Brown DAC's

Only a so-so remote

I primarily bought this unit for two reasons. I had recently purchased one of their AV receivers and loved it. I also had read good reviews of their CD player and wanted a new matching player, so there it is. The sound is quite good although it is so good it reveals a crappy recording quickly. I was slightly disapointed that I was told by my dealer that I could no longer purchase it in the black color to match my R-945 receiver. The "titanium" finish looks more like silver to me and that is what they should call it.
The ergonomics are good and controls are thoughtfully laid out on the front panel. It uses the somewhat atypical calendar track display which is found on many Sony models. The stereo imaging of this player is superb due in part I am sure to the very excellent Burr Brown DAC's. A 20 Bit Pat Metheny disc of mine was so three dimensional it made by speakers seem almost "electrostatic" in depth. I paid 449 for the unit from my local dealer and it is an excellent unit for the money. Look out Sony ES.

Similar Products Used:

HK FL8350, Sony CDPC505

Great value, amazing clarity and soundstage

Weighs a little light; expected a "heavy" unit but so are the like from Rotel, CAL, etc

I was bit hesitant buying a CD player made by Sherwood (I thought this was the low end company). But I read the raving reviews on their A/V receivers and friend asked me to give CD-980 a try.

Boy, I'm glad I did as this unit is a "jewel" among the high end players. I auditioned Rotel 971, CAL Ikon plus my old player CAL DX-2 and I must say it blew away the CALs and was in par with 971 although I feel 980 sounded better at much cheaper price. The DAC onn this unit is worth its list price and the high end features like pitch control puts in league with the over $1k crowd consisting of many "boutique" players charging exhorbitant price on units with transport borrwed from Philips or other Janpanese mass producers and simple DAC circuit using the same BB chipset as 980.

Hey "ignore" the brand name stuff and get this unit as you'll be smiling. Uh, take this unti to a freinds's house with separate transport and DAC worth many dollars more and try it their system. They will be amazed and filled with envy when you tell the how much you paid for it!

PS - I paid $550 on the net.

Similar Products Used:

Rotels, CALs