Sherwood tuners

Recently, I have begun to give serious consideration as to weather or not I wanna start with Sherwood tube stuff.. I have never heard anything bad about them, but I would like to hear some stuff first. I figured their tuners would be a great place to start...
I was wondering if anyone knew which models were able to have a on board MPX decoder? Also, what is generally considered to be their best model? I absolutley love the low profile of their stuff.

Yes, you do want to start collecting Sherwood tube tuners. I have a Sherwood 2100II that is better than the tuner section of my Scott 340B receiver and that is a good receiver. Since I run the Sherwood through the Scott amp, there is no difference in amp or speakers, so I can get a good comparison.

It has a cascode RF stage for low noise, a pentode mixer, a pair of IF stages followed by a 6BN6 limiter and a 6AU8 detector driver/mute stage followed by a ratio detector. and a time-division multiplexer. The AM section has a tuned RF amp and two bandwidth settings.

The best part is the sound - it is better than anything else I have.

I want to say its the -III series tuners that have onboard MPX. That may not be correct though.

The IV and V do, I am not so sure about the III. Oh, maybe the III is the one with a space on the chassis for the add-on MPX. If so, it may or may not be present, depending on the specific unit (most likely, depending upon the fiscal priorities of its original owner!).

I realize this is an unsolicited opinion, but I'll repeat my oft-stated bias -- I don't think most folks will miss MPX stereo FM too much after spending some quality time listening to a very good mono tuner. The backwards-compatible FM multiplex system we have had since 1961 is pretty amazing technology -- but one does pay a price for stereo (in terms of signal to noise ratio, distortion, and HF performance) when that little light comes on.

Here's my S-3000 V. It actually replaced my (mono) S-2000 (and despite my 'anti-stereo' screed above) in my 'real' hifi when we moved to the new house full-time.

Sherwood S3000 V 2 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

(I need to take a better photo of this tuner -- it's not really a pretty face, but a better-sounding tuner, mono or stereo, would cost considerably more than this one)

EDIT: The "V" is probably the least desirable cosmetically, I'd opine. It has a rather pedestrian little FM center-channel meter instead of the waterfall "magic eye" signal strength "display", a literally tacked-on "Sherwood" label, and generally just bland-er cosmetics than the earlier Sherwoods. The earlier models are certainly... idiosyncratic cosmetically ... but they're somewhat more attractive (IMO) than this late vacuum tube-era product.

Here's an (unsuffixed) S-2000 for comparison (with an ill-fitting metal cabinet; sorry about that!)

S2000 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

gadget73 said:

I want to say its the -III series tuners that have onboard MPX. That may not be correct though.

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The III could be mono or stereo. It was mono but it could be bought with the optional onboard decoder or at a later time the outboard could be added. The S3000IV and V were stereo by default.

There seems to be a liking for the mono S3000 and S3000II. The II or at least some had a provision for the outboard decoder. I ran a III and IV in the same state of condition and honestly, if there was a difference, my ears were no longer good enough to hear it.

As far as I have been able to tell, the am/fm S2100 series were mono with a decoder option. My Sherwood catalog with the early ss Sherwood tuner still showed the S2100 mono with an option for the mpx. I am not sure how many versions of the S2100 there were.

The specs of the S2100 are slightly below the S3000III, IV, and V but not by enough to be noticed except maybe in very high end revealing systems. It may be the same as the S3000, II and early III.

The mono tuners were wideband, ie could go out to 20khz. Of course with the advent of stereo the upper limit is 15khz. The wide band may still produce better high end if a competing tuner starts rolling off earlier than 15khz as many did until brick filters came into being later. So, if best sound is criterea and stereo is not essential go for the mono. If stereo is wsnted, I think I would look at a mono with the external decoder so you can bypass it.

Unlike Mark, I will not knock the S3000V and prefer it for the reason Mark does no care for it. The meter works as well as the tube but, go replace the tube, not cheap. The faceplate is a transition between the tube and 1st gen ss tuner and amp. I actually like the faceplate better as it will never wear off like the earlier tube faceplates do. The material is the same but they dropped the paint and the natural finish looks better against the gold, does not jump out and grab you like tje white paint does. The script, while not modern looks more current than the old. I am neutral between the 2 scripts.

All right, I am going to try and pick up a S-2000 ii soneone here in the next week... now i need to start looking at their amps and stuff...

There is a Sherwood S-3000III in the Seattle area languishing for $50 bucks for about the last 10 weeks.

I'd buy an S-3000III for fiddy smackers in an instant if it were in working condition and physically and cosmetically decent.

Brian, the eye tubes for the early Sherwoods, at least (6BR5, if memory serves), are still cheap (at least they were a few years ago when I replaced a very dim one in that S-2000).

That said, the center-channel meter is in fact considerably more useful ('specially for stereo) than a magic eye... but the latter looks far cooler

P1040227 by mhardy6647, on Flickr
(not that I've yet managed to take a decent photo of one in action...)

Just to be clear -- the S-3000V is my daily driver. I am extremely happy with it for the $35 it cost at the NEARC antique radio swapmeet about a year and a half ago.

Oh Mark, as far as cool factor dancing tubes sure beat dull looking meters. got to agree whole heartedly on that.

Hard to believe you guys are finding these tuners for less than a carton of cigs. If they were plentiful here at those prices on I would go nutty and have them stacked to the ceiling.

They still show up for 50 or less in New England -- the surprising thing with that S-3000V was that it worked well in mono "as is", not to mention that it even worked in stereo... and the stereo alignment was even good "as is". It is frequency stable and sounds... well... excellent. Pretty freaking remarkable.

I already have an s8000III or elese I'd grab that tuner.

Wouldn't stop me ;-)

Sherwood S8000IV by mhardy6647, on Flickr

mhardy6647 said:

That said, the center-channel meter is in fact considerably more useful ('specially for stereo) than a magic eye... but the latter looks far cooler

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I have a mono S-2000 with the wicked cool tuning tube and a stereo S-3000III with the center tune meter. I LOVE that tuning tube. Both are nice tuners.

If you want a cool tuning eye, the S-7000 has a cool dual beam eye for the AM/FM simulcast stereo system that it was designed around. The FM tuner uses the upper band, and the AM the lower (or vise-versa, I don't have it on at the moment). Very cool to look at, but about impossible to stand listening to since there aren't any stations around here that have the same programming on both bands.


I would agree that a good mono FM tuner doesn't really lack much compared to a stereo tuner. If you don't have stellar signal strength, the improvement in S/N with mono is enough for me to give up the separation.

LexDM3 said:

I have a mono S-2000 with the wicked cool tuning tube and a stereo S-3000III with the center tune meter. I LOVE that tuning tube. Both are nice tuners.

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The center tune meter only came out on the V. Could you post a photo front and back showing he S3000 label as well as the interior. If you have a III with meter it may be either a mod or prototype. Do you know the history?

mhardy6647 said:

Wouldn't stop me ;-)

Sherwood S8000IV by mhardy6647, on Flickr

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Someone really needs to offer a faceplate refurb service for the painter Sherwood faceplates.
Such a beautiful looking unit killed by the old and worn paint, how sad.

"Killed",eh? I dunno about that -- works fine. A bit cosmetically challenged... but so am I.

I've got a couple I'd get go, along with the MPX adapter.

So, I just bought my first s-2000 II sans the top cover, but im okay with that...

josephdaniel said:

So, I just bought my first s-2000 II sans the top cover, but im okay with that...

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A nice wood sleeve will fix that. Not complicated and really makes them. I have a pair for my Sherwoods. Really sets them off nicely. Also helps keep the dust off the front end that depending on version may be exposed.

Congrats and now time to look for an amp.