Rare Sherwood HP 5500 tuner on Web -- cool pics

KiM3Ce

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
At the end of its production in the USA Sherwood introduced an "HP" or High Performance set of components. I had seen the amplifier but until now I did not know there was an "HP" tuner. I can't link an active sale within this forum, but I bet if you do a search on a famous auction site you will find it. It somewhat resembles the SEL-300.

My understanding is that Hewlett-Packard did not like the use of the HP moniker and forced Sherwood to discontinue its use.

No affiliation to seller. Enjoy!
 
Not all that strange - past Sherwood's market prime so seldom seen. I think I saw that auction -- the price was outrageous. Utterly outrageous.


Sherwoodtuna by mhardy6647, on Flickr


The fancy digital/programmable model from that series... now that would be noteworthy. I cannot remember the model number offhand; have to dig out the brochure and see (or google it!)...


Sherwoods by mhardy6647, on Flickr
 
You're thinking of the Sherwood Micro/CPU 100 later marketed under Draco Labs. There's one at the bottom left of your last photo above. Thanks for posting the Sherwood ads! Yes, that price is for a collector's item!
 
Yes, that's right (re the digital one).
I am not sure how rare the HP 5500 is... I've never looked for one. The companion amps seem pretty cool, though.

Amusingly, it appears as though the seller of this kilobuck tuner (?!?) got his info from the scan above - which I think I originally posted over at AA...

I did not realize this tuner was US made, though.

As you may know, I have something of a soft spot in my head... umm, I mean heart... for Sherwood tunas...


DSC_8058 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

Sherwood S3000 V 1 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

... and one little token ss Sherwood tuna...


lowrentrack 012414 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

(that's the low-rent rack, if it's no obvious by the miscellaneous hifi junk on it... in another time here at AK, one might have referred to it as a crapstack)


Historically - they look funny but they sound danged good. You could buy a BUNCH of S-3000s for a kilobuck...
 
Mhardy, I notice that the S 3000 V 1 has dial markings every 0.2 MHz rather than the usual imprecise mark every 1 MHz. How accurate is the calibration across the dial?

Alignment of the front end only sets the 2 places used for that alignment. I have actually done a bit of plate bending on tuning capacitors to "stretch" a portion of the dial to try and get more accurate tracking between those end points.
 
Let me go look :)

Listenin' to 89.5 MHz (VPR, their Windsor, VT repeater) right now... dial is on 89.5. Note that the numbers are a little off-axis relative to the "major ticks" on the dial; It took me a minute to read it correctly!

The S-3000V is strictly as-acquired; not aligned. That's as much of an answer as I can give you.

We really only listen to VPR and NHPR on the radio.
 
The listing for the HP 5500 says 220 V but the factory plate on the back says 120. It looks like a European antenna connector was fitted. Hmm...
 
Got mine for $36, invested in service and wow, sounds terrific! Now I need to find some side panels.

My next project is to find the service manual and compare it to the SEL-300.
 
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