News

Sherwood Adds Performance Features to Newcastle Flagship Units (26/8/2005)

Improving the sound of your system is now a SNAP

Sherwood America Inc., a leading manufacturer of high performance audio equipment, announced that a new breakthrough feature has been added to its Newcastle line. The feature, Sherwood Newcastle Automatic Parametric EQ or "SNAP" for short, adds 7 bands of parametric EQ to each of the channels, including the subwoofer channel, for its Newcastle R-965 and R-865 receivers and its P-965 tuner/preamp/processor. Upgraded '65 series SNAP models will be available in mid-August. Current '65 series owners can upgrade existing units with a quick factory service program.

An extension of the Automatic Speaker Setup routine that was added to these models late in 2004 as part of Newcastle's Field Upgrade program, SNAP first measures the frequency response of each of the 7.1 channels using sophisticated 1/12 octave amplitude mapping. According to Jeffrey Hipps, Sherwood's Sr. VP for Marketing and Product Planning, "1/12 octave measurements allow us to concentrate the highest accuracy on the frequency bands that can most benefit from equalization." For example, there are 24 measurement points in the bass area between 20 and 80 Hz. SNAP then uses up to 7 bands of parametric EQ per channel with both adjustable center frequency and "Q" to improve in-room system response. "The results", according to Hipps, "are outstanding. My personal system, with its mix of di-pole and direct radiating speakers has never sounded better. Dialogue intelligibility is improved and surround effects, no matter where they are panned, sound realistic."

Sherwood believes the benefits of SNAP are so great that it is enacting a program whereby owners of these three Newcastle models, the R-865, R-965 and P-965, can add SNAP to their own units for a nominal charge of only $100.00. To participate in the SNAP upgrade program, '65 series owners need to call Sherwood's Technical Support at (800) 962-3203 x 115 to arrange an upgrade appointment. Once they have the appointment, the owner is responsible for shipment to Sherwood and the $100.00 charge. Sherwood will add SNAP to the unit and return it, prepaid. Turn around time at Sherwood is expected to be less than one week.

www.sherwoodamerica.com