warm, rich smooth

best into 8 ohm loads

This is one smooth, warm, a bit euphonic sounding amp. the treble is a bit laid back compared to my citation but overall it still sounds wonderful for its price range.

Similar Products Used:

citaton 7.1, HK 5800

cost(but only if it works!

only lasted for 3 hours!

Unit worked well for HT use, albeit it only worked for approximately 3 hours! Performance was less than stellar for straight audio, but that wasn't what I bought it for anyway.
Thought I was getting a great deal buying this from Ubid, even with 70lb. shipping costs. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out where to send it to be replaced or repaired just like the reviewer below.
Hopefully all will(eventually) end well, and I can follow up with a better review. Until then... :-(

Similar Products Used:

Harmon/Kardon, Adcom

Delivered doa, no center channel and nasty low level hum on rest of channels

I took a chance buying this unit online at what seemed was value. I wanted to condense all my amps into one decent five channel unit without shelling out a thousand bucks.Out of the box, the unit had no center and a nasty buzz at low levels on the rest of the channels. I have purchased many, many components and never experienced a doa. Just a warning, it seems this may be a get what you pay for situation. I haven't been able to find warranty info online yet. Sherwoods website refers you to your dealer for local warranty repair. Ubid has no warranty or dealer service repair info. When buying this unit, keep in mind should you have to ship it for repairs, it weighs 70 LBS!!! ARRRRGGHHH
Wish me luck!

Similar Products Used:

Adcom gfa 555, 555 II, Nad 2000,

I have had the AM-9080 for 3 months. I bought it with the AVP-9080 preamp. I did listen to 3 other amp's along with this one before the purchase. The dealer let me hear an Adcom, ATI and Proceed. Listening to music the ATI and Proceed sounded better, but not by that much. The Proceed won while the 9080 sounded better than the Adcom. In DD & DTS mode the 9080 competed with the all of them. Lows were as good or better than the lot. Again the Proceed did sound the best.
In summary, if you listen to mostly music the ATI 1505 or Proceed were better amps. If I combine music and DD/DTS the 9080 came in a 3rd right behind the ATI and ahead of the Adcom. But when I consider PRICE. The 9080 won. It was considerably less than the competition and didn't miss them by much.

Heavy, Very well made

Very well made unit. Sounds very good, easily drives my
Magnepan MGIIc's. Happy with this unit and matching preamp.
Highly recommended.

Newcastle is rapidly carving out a solid reputation for manufacturing high quality products at extremely competitive prices. This amp has plenty of power for all but the most extreme speakers. Anyway, if you own $10,000 speakers why would you buy a $1000.00 amp? For most of us with speakers between $1000 and $3000, this amp is a great performer.
It should be noted that this is a five-channel amp designed for home theater use. It performs movies as well as anything I’ve heard. Musically this amp performs quite well, but it would not be my first choice if music were its primary mission.

Looking for the perfect blend in one unit? Guess what? It doesn’t exist! Looking for a high-performance unit, for a decent price, that does awesome movies and good music without cashing in your 401(k)? THIS IS IT!

I have this paired with the 9080 pre-amp. I have to agree, this bad boy is a powerhouse. I can't tell you how skeptical I was when buying the sherwood separates, so I took them home on loaner, I listened. I compared them to the sony 9000es separates, I listened more. I was looking for reasons to take it back, all 70lbs of it. I tried the amp with the sony pre, and the sherwood pre with the sony amp. I took the sony's back. I had a friend bring over his marantz pre/carver combo. I still have the sherwoods, but permanatly. I went to store after store listening, trialing etc. This 70 lb beast reaches way down low for plenty of dynamics and oomph, and the pre is spectacular. Dead quiet, and combined with this beast has great clairity and oomph for music and movies. It really is a great amp, and sherwoods customer support is also great. I like the color to boot. Sound is neutral to me and to spend more on separates didn't make sense to me unless I could afford 1000's more. Given it's price (I paid 2000 for the combo locally) I don't think there is anything better. 4 stars for music and 5 on movies!

Tremendous power, though the other receivers that I compared it to were not in the same price range.

Be warned that there might be some slight problem with discerning dialogue in movies. I went crazy switching center channels and changing speaker angles for a while. But with a full size main speaker for the center channel, it seems OK. I'm using 5 identical MBQuart D55s Domains.

I still highly recommend it, but first try it with your center. I had a problem in Matrix when Trinity approaches Neo at the bar. It was really great with anything DTS, like the Eagles Hell Freezes Over.