Sherwood S-7210 Receiver

[montrecott]

I've gotten rid of most of my vintage receivers, but I've always wanted to try out a Sherwood, and I saw an S-7210 receiver from CL last weekend. The seller had it hooked up to a pair of nice Energy speakers and despite its scratchy controls it was making nice music with them, so I bought it and took it home. It's now been given a good cleaning inside and out, along with a Deoxit bath. I'm impressed. The stereo light is out but it does receive FM stations in stereo--in fact, the tuner is terrific, far better than on most receivers I've owned. The Sherwood sounds great as part of a sub $100 system on the sun porch, which also includes a Marantz CD player and pair of ADS 300 speakers. My wife loves the sound of it too, and my son thinks it looks cool. That's a good thing because it might end up in his room eventually (he's 6). As much as I miss that Kenwood KR-5030, I don't want anything that powerful in his room as he gets older.

Haven't tried out the faux quadraphonic capability of the receiver, which Sherwood called Dynaquad, and I probably won't. What I will say is that it just sounds great, at least to my ears--better than a lot of bigger name gear I've had and heard. The tuner is as good as you'll find in a low-powered (26 wpc) receiver, and better than you'll find in some high-powered receivers. A few pictures are attached.

 

[Binkman]

Nice shape. There are better grades of pot cleaners and lubes than deoxit. You can do a search here using 'deoxit sherwood' to list. lest someone posts some names.

Nice your son is interested... hope we don't read how he blew it cranking the volume (might warn him about that, too.) Maybe he'll take an interest in it responsibly in time.

 

[ra.ra]

Nice receiver. A few years ago I picked up my first Sherwood (S-7100, entry level), which was in near-new condition, and have also been totally impressed. Mine is only about 20 watts/channel and is more than plenty to fill a room, even with rather inefficient speakers (AR-4's). It's pretty cool that you are in Chicago where Sherwood was HQ'd, and while many of their electronics were in fact assembled in Japan, I think at last some were fully manufactured in Illinois.

Pics below show: (1) not my pic, but exact same receiver I have; (2) S-8900A I picked up for a friend, being tested with ADS 300's (like yours?); and (3) a pretty good list of many of the Sherwood receivers.

If I remember correctly, these small ADS speakers are rated at nominal 4 ohms, and many, if not most of these receivers did publish power ratings for 4 ohm loads. Not sure how all of that works when the "Quad" feature is used to drive four speakers, but I'd certainly be tempted to try this feature, even for an indoor porch application.

 

[mhardy6647]

Yes they are nice - great FM tuner section, too.

 

[cutthroatloc]

I picked up a Sherwood 7210a and was also impressed. Very nice unit but at the time had to much other stuff in my rotation. Same time my sister had bought her first house and gave it to her along with a pair of AR 4x's as a house warming gift. She couldn't be more happier and when I go over I can listen to them and still enjoy. So glad I didn't sell them and they went to a good home.
CTL

 

[montrecott]

Nice shape. There are better grades of pot cleaners and lubes than deoxit. You can do a search here using 'deoxit sherwood' to list. lest someone posts some names.

Thanks for the info. I just did a search here about that. Maybe I'll hit the volume pot with some Fader Lube (also a Deoxit product, but I used the standard D5 Red & then Gold.)

 

[montrecott]

Nice receiver. A few years ago I picked up my first Sherwood (S-7100, entry level), which was in near-new condition, and have also been totally impressed. Mine is only about 20 watts/channel and is more than plenty to fill a room, even with rather inefficient speakers (AR-4's). It's pretty cool that you are in Chicago where Sherwood was HQ'd, and while many of their electronics were in fact assembled in Japan, I think at last some were fully manufactured in Illinois.

Pics below show: (1) not my pic, but exact same receiver I have; (2) S-8900A I picked up for a friend, being tested with ADS 300's (like yours?); and (3) a pretty good list of many of the Sherwood receivers.

If I remember correctly, these small ADS speakers are rated at nominal 4 ohms, and many, if not most of these receivers did publish power ratings for 4 ohm loads. Not sure how all of that works when the "Quad" feature is used to drive four speakers, but I'd certainly be tempted to try this feature, even for an indoor porch application.

Yep, those ADS 300's in your picture are just like mine. Thanks for the 4 ohm reminder about those. All is says in the Sherwood S7210 manual under speaker output is "high or low impedance." Thanks for the Sherwood receiver list as well. I would love to get my hands a more powerful one someday.

Sherwood was located near the intersection of Montrose and California Ave., a little over a mile from where I'm sitting.

 

[montrecott]

Yes they are nice - great FM tuner section, too.

:yes: The tuner in this Sherwood is better than the one that was in a Marantz 2226B I had. The Marantz had been serviced and aligned before I bought it. The Sherwood had not. In fact, I think I think I'm the first to open it up since it left the factory.

 

[montrecott]

I picked up a Sherwood 7210a and was also impressed. Very nice unit but at the time had to much other stuff in my rotation. Same time my sister had bought her first house and gave it to her along with a pair of AR 4x's as a house warming gift. She couldn't be more happier and when I go over I can listen to them and still enjoy. So glad I didn't sell them and they went to a good home.
CTL

According to another thread here, Sherwood usually used the A suffix to denote an improved model or major circuit revision. So the one that went to your sister was probably made a year or two after mine. What a cool gift. :thmbsp:

 

[R-2-R]

Yea, that Sherwood SR-7210 sure does look sweet! :tresbon:

Thanks for posting and sharing.

 

[59volvo]

what is the difference between the s-7200 and s-7210? I have the 7200 and sounds very nice

 

[PastTechFan]

Glad you're enjoying your new rig. Bought an S-7300 a year ago. Have it in my office. Have some scratchy pots I must get to. Haven't even opened it up yet. Lovely sound!

 

[ra.ra]

Still very curious.....would like to hear some commentary on the quad capabilities of these receivers. Meanwhile, here's some add'l info for the OP. The hi-fi engine site is fantastic - - you sign in for free, and then have access to many, many valuable and original manufacturer's documents. The entire service manual for the Sherwood 7210 is available.

file:///Users/bby/Desktop/collections/electronics/Sherwood/Sherwood%20S-7210%20%7C%20Owners:Service%20Manuals,%20Schematics,%20Free%20Download,%20Reviews%20%7C%20HiFi%20Engine.webarchive

 

[Eric n Kc]

Scatchy volume knob

I think I read somewhere on here to be very careful cleaning the volume knob. Because the off/on switch will go south on you. You might check it out before you go too far.
Oh yeah I've got the s7900a playing with klh 5's and 6's. SWEEEET!Eric

 

[mhardy6647]

Still very curious.....would like to hear some commentary on the quad capabilities of these receivers. Meanwhile, here's some add'l info for the OP. The hi-fi engine site is fantastic - - you sign in for free, and then have access to many, many valuable and original manufacturer's documents. The entire service manual for the Sherwood 7210 is available.

file:///Users/bby/Desktop/collections/electronics/Sherwood/Sherwood%20S-7210%20%7C%20Owners:Service%20Manuals,%20Schematics,%20Free%20Download,%20Reviews%20%7C%20HiFi%20Engine.webarchive

Not really quad AFAIK -- I think it's an "ambience extraction" scheme a la David Hafler's Dynaquad. This very simple (but ostensibly quite effective) approach feeds the out of phase information from the two stereo channels to one or two speakers behind the listener. The better implementations permit adjustment of the rear speakers' output level.

 

[montrecott]

Yea, that Sherwood SR-7210 sure does look sweet! :tresbon:

Thanks for posting and sharing.

My pleasure. :thmbsp: This thing is even better than I thought it would be. For me, being a mid-fi guy is about finding finding stuff I can afford that makes listening to music enjoyable. Not complicated, but it works for me.

 

[montrecott]

what is the difference between the s-7200 and s-7210? I have the 7200 and sounds very nice

According to ra.ra's attachment, the S-7200 is 32wpc. The S-7210 is 26wpc. In pictures I've seen the 7200 has six black push buttons on the face plate. The 7210 has only five. So the 7200 must have at least one feature the 7210 doesn't.

 

[montrecott]

Glad you're enjoying your new rig. Bought an S-7300 a year ago. Have it in my office. Have some scratchy pots I must get to. Haven't even opened it up yet. Lovely sound!

They just sound good, don't they? You often hear the term "warm" applied to vintage gear. You listen to a 70's Sherwood and you know exactly what that means.

 

[montrecott]

Still very curious.....would like to hear some commentary on the quad capabilities of these receivers. Meanwhile, here's some add'l info for the OP. The hi-fi engine site is fantastic - - you sign in for free, and then have access to many, many valuable and original manufacturer's documents. The entire service manual for the Sherwood 7210 is available.

file:///Users/bby/Desktop/collections/electronics/Sherwood/Sherwood%20S-7210%20%7C%20Owners:Service%20Manuals,%20Schematics,%20Free%20Download,%20Reviews%20%7C%20HiFi%20Engine.webarchive

Thanks for the service manual link. :thmbsp:

 

[montrecott]

I think I read somewhere on here to be very careful cleaning the volume knob. Because the off/on switch will go south on you. You might check it out before you go too far.
Oh yeah I've got the s7900a playing with klh 5's and 6's. SWEEEET!Eric

Someone else pointed that volume knob issue as well. I hit the volume pot with some Fader Lube last night, since I'd Deoxit'd it before knowing about that. So far, so good.... Thanks for the idea re: the KLH. :thmbsp: I've got a pair of 6's that would probably sound really good with the Sherwood.