I have not had the opportunity to review this product first hand. The only review that I know of was published in the October issue of Stereo Review. It did not get RAVE reviews, however seemed to hold its own. It seems to offer a lot of value and I can not help but ascertain from the pictures that I have seen, that it is a very attractive piece. Incidentally, I have 3 Adcom 545 mkII's, Paradigm Espirit's(front), Servo(sub), Phantoms(rear), and what was Paradigm's top of the line center channel(model #?). Is there a really good and AFFORDABLE preamp/processor out there that I should know about? The AVP-9080 does have a lot to offer but Sherwood?...

Hola!
I've listen to some of the Sherwood products and they are well built and solid. The AVP 9080 offers a lot for the money specially if you are more into HT, on the other hand if you are more concern about the stereo capabilities of a pre amp there are other options to consider. Check out the new Rotel 975 pre pro with DD for $1,000 and the exellent Angstrom 100 also for $1,000. They may lack some of the extras of the Sherwood but you'll get better audio performance specially with the Angstrom.

The Sherwood is an exellent value in the market place and for that I'll award it :

I only recently purchased the AVP-9080R so this review is not as definitive as it might otherwise be. Generally, I am quite enthusiastic about the unit. I would rate its positive points very highly. Those are (1) the price; (2) the quality of the sound, both on music and movies; (2) including both DTS and DD; (3) the quality of its craftsmanship in the chassis; (4) the remote (as it applies to the unit only- I can't get it to work with my other appliances); (4) the inclusion of DTS and DD (which are both well integrated); (5) the inclusion of an RF input for laser; and (6) the general simplicity of its operation. The price was important to me. The $1200 retail price tag was at the top of what I was willing to spend, so within that price range I felt I have received a lot of value. The negatives are the limited number of digital inputs (3) including the RF input; no digital outputs; the instruction manual which I felt was okay but certainly not as clear as I would have liked; and (I know this sounds petty) the color. The color is a gun metal gray. It is brushed which is nice, but the color just doesn't look very good next to my other components which are either black or silver. I can't imagine why they chose that color. It looks like of- well, dull.
The quality of the sound is just spectacular. Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a pre/pro in this price range.

I have only had this product set up for 5 days and everything else in my system is also new. In addition I was not able to audition anything else I was researching to compare, so please take this review from a limited mindset only. Please keep in mind that I upgraded from a Kenwood Prologic receiver circa 1993 with like 25 watts to the rear.
I will start with the appearance - I love it - it does not match any of my components - (none of which also are Sherwood) but it is by far the best looking piece in my house IMHO - (I have also received many compliments from friends citing the appearance)

Next - Capabilities - I have watched three DD DVD's and again I am pleased enough to give 5 stars. It has DTS which I may or may not ever use but at least it is there:) and this gives me piece of mind as do the 6-ch inputs. It also has 4 DSP's which I do not care for or about - the pro logic sounds great.
The stereo mode to my less discriminating ears sounds transparent enough to me.

Backplane - If you have a laser disc player you are in luck but if you have 3 or more additional digital components which I do not - you will be out an input or more:(.
Other than that - plenty of analog inputs and very easy to set up.

Remote - I love it, too. I have programmed all my components to it and put all the other ones away - it looks cool too. I have programmed it to turn everything on with the power button (one push) and off with one of the 4 memory buttons - If I can do it - you can too - trust me.

The Kicker - PRICE - I paid 800.00 INCLUDING shipping at Uncles (probably b/c they were trying to move units before the show - I don't know) and between a used Marantz AV600/DP870 (my other main choice) and the new Sherwood - All I can say is I am a happy customer.

This is a well thought out and executed product. It is not a powerhouse like the Sony TA-9000ES but simply a good transparent-sounding AV pre/pro that does what it's supposed to do very well and represents tremendous value for the money since it successfully competes with products twice its price ( Acurus ACT-3, GTX Golden Theater, B&K Ref 20, etc. ) I have minor gripes like the lack of digital inputs ( even though for now with LD, DVD and soon to come DSS I am set ) that can be easily fixed by addin MSB Digital Director, or the fact that it cannot memorize different subwoofer levels for different inputs ( say Stereo and DD ) but overall I am very satisfied with this product.

I have had the AVP-9080 for about 3 months now. In a nutshell this is my summary:
Positives: Excellent clean sound for both music and DD/DTS.
Ample SVHS connections
Component video in/out connections.
Looks/style
Ease of use
Video labeling
5.1 inputs
Build quality

Negatives: Only 1 coax & 1 optical input. No digital outputs.
Remote is just okay. Difficult to remember what does what.
No Cimema Eq

Overall: Excellent preamp for the price. It may not be as good as the
Sunfire, but the Sunfire is 3X the price. I would buy it again in
a minute.

I have had my Sherwood Newcastle AVP-9080R for one month and very pleased with the perfomance of this unit. I did read a review of this unit in Home Theater and the article mentioned that you cannot perform channel-level adjustments from the remote. Well they are incorrect you can set the channel-level adjustments via the remote also on the digital inputsI found that you can hook more than one coaxial connection together with a Y cable and just power up the unit you plan to use.
The other units I am using with the AVP-9080R are
Dish Sat receiver,Parasound D/AC-1000 D/A and C/DP-1000 CD player,JVC Super VHS,Pioneer DVL-909 combo player,B&K AV6.5.4 power amp bridged to 3 channels 120 wpc this unit powers the center and rear channel speakers,Hafler 9505 power amp 250 wpc fo the right and left channels, Panamax 1000 surge protector, Nakamichi CR-7A cass, Pioneer PDR-04 CD recorder,Denon DP-1100 turntable w/Grado cartridge and the speakers F/L Infinity RS-2,s the rear channel
Infinity monitor 11A and the center channel is Phase Technology PC-60 Mark 2.

I have had this unit for about two weeks now; I am quite satisfied with it. For the money ($739 plus shipping from Smile in New York), nothing can come close to it in performance. Granted, the Sunfire and others are probably better units but they cost almost three times as much. Its DTS and Dolby Digital decoding are excellent. In addition its ordinary D/A conversion of CDs is very good and outperforms the D/A converters in my Toshiba DVD. I am not worried about the limited number of digital inputs as I sold my LD Player and only run DSS and DVD. The remote is good, but could be improved by listing functions on the remote. Its performance on ordinary analog stereo is more than adequate. In a nutshell, this is a fine product that would be a bargain at twice the price a paid for it.

After reading many intelligent reviews and getting a number of glowing recommendations, I purchased this unit. I am in love with its design and its elegance. I don't mind the limited number of digital inputs, but I wish it would auto-detect and "report on" what type of signal it is getting. I don't like hearing raw DTS coming out when the 9080R is in DD mode and I put in a DTS cd.
The other thing that bugs me, and this is related, is the DSP modes. They are truly pathetic and should not have been included. "So don't use them," you say? I don't. But since the unit has no auto signal detection, from my listening position I am forced to toggle through the decoding modes via the remote to get the right one. And I have to toggle PAST "church," "stadium," and so forth to get to Dolby Digital or DTS. That is a time-waster and an incessant reminder of those bad DSP modes.

If this sounds like I don't like the unit, think again. The sound is tremendous and what I just wrote constitutes the only beef I have with the unit. Other than that, I am perfectly amazed at the quality and value this represents. For the price? Five stars, easy. Even if it was $2,000 I'd give it 4.5 stars.

I purchased the Sherwood combo to replace a Kenwood THX pre/pro and amplifier, and thus far have been very pleased.There are a couple of irregularities that I'm experiencing that won't let me totally fall in love with this unit. First off, I notice an excessive level of background noise (hiss) when decoding DD soundtracks from my Panasonic DVDA310s coaxial output. The offending noise goes away immediately if the film is paused, but is right back in the mix during quiet scenes in the movie...Th Fifth Element, is particularly noticeable...a problem I never heard on my Denon AVD2000 decoder. The only other "problem" Is that I can hear the volume control's VCA changing setting through my speakers when adjusted manually (that is it makes an easily detectable popping sound as the volume is adjusted.) My speakers aren't unusually efficient (Thiel CS1)...I don't get it! I haven't heard a volume control since my a/d/s atelier R! receiver back in 90...
Now for the good stuff..analog performance is killer...the phono stage is extremely quiet and dynamic, and certainly ranks with the best built in units I've heard...the internal tuner appears top work OK...my Kenwood with the same antenna system was better, but that's a forgiveable offense for as much as I listen to the radio.
All in all, this is a wonderful sounding unit with a lot of things going for it...If I can get the litle noise problems ironed out it should prove a happy marrraige indeed!