Sherwood 6106R

Sherwood 6106R:

Now for those who don't know, the Sherwood 6106R is a surround sound amplifier, the successor to the 6095 reviewed on this site also. I bought mine for £130 ex demo, but they can be had for £179.99 new.
A surround amplifier is different from a normal hifi amplifier in that the normal amp is designed for music alone, whereas a cinema amp is for home cinema, and also for music when you spend enough.

.../> If there are any Sherwood 6106R owners reading this, who are not happy with their sound, like I was, then you can always send me your questions at thenameyouknow@hotmail.com

If this has been a bit too technical for you, and you want to get into home cinema, go and get one of these amps, and a speaker set from Eltax, and you'll love it once it's configured properly (easy, but not obvious).  ... more

Sherwood 6106R:

Now for those who don't know, the Sherwood 6106R is a surround sound amplifier, the successor to the 6095 reviewed on this site also. I bought mine for £130 ex demo, but they can be had for £179.99 new.
A surround amplifier is different from a normal hifi amplifier in that the normal amp is designed for music alone, whereas a cinema amp is for home cinema, and also for music when you spend enough.

Now, if I had written this review a week ago, I would have given it about three stars, as I was not very happy with it's home cinema capabilities. But that has changed, dramatically! Since I got that amazing ex demo price, I didn't get a manual, FM aerial or a remote. I have the manual and aerial and will get the remote soon anyway so that's ok. The reason I downloaded the manual was because there was a button called 'speaker mode' which I didn't understand. Now usually I would understand instantly, but when pressed it flashed up 'FL - CS - RS' which meant nothing to me. Also, I hadn't tried the 'Cinema EQ' as it sounded like a cheap gimmick, but as you'll find out, it really isn't at all!

The strange codes are referring to the size of your speakers, which is very important, I have mine set to 'FL - CL - RL' which relates to fronts: large, center: large and rears: large.
A speaker is large if the main cone (woofer) is bigger than 6". You can access these settings by pressing and holding the speaker mode button down. Setting all the speakers to large is recommended (by me at least) as if you set the rears to small for instance, you will barely hear them at all.

I'll no go over some of my favourite features on this amp:

-Cinema EQ

Now my absolute favourite. When I started using digital sound and could play my DVD's in Dolby Digital and DTS, the sound was so sharp and shrill that I couldn't play it too loud. All the bass which I loved so much was gone! The channel separation was amazing, but I didn't enjoy it. I was not happy at all. Until I turned Cinema EQ on. I read in the manual about it, and it said that it brought back the bass and removed the harsh parts of the soundtrack, brilliant! And it is brilliant, rear effects (almost non existent before) were clear and loud, the front speakers were much bassier, and the centre sounded more rich, and clear. Listening to films was really about three times better than before.

-Dolby Digital

The successor to Dolby Pro Logic, this will send the sound to up to six speakers, which will give you surround effects like ricochets of bullets you see fired, or maybe a storm brewing far off. The sound quality is also greatly enriched, and channel separaration is perfect, unlike in pro logic, where it was 'fuzzy' in my opinion.

-DTS

Not on many DVD's, this is even better than Dolby Digital, as I've been finding out with DTS enhanced Gladiator, starring Russel Crowe.

-Three Digital Inputs

These let you enjoy digital sound and picture from DVD players, CD players, Super Audio CD Players, and any other digital device. There are two coaxial and one optical inputs.

-RDS tuner

The tuner has a big memory, and supports AM and FM. The reception in my house is very clear with an aerial, and ok without. RDS is a technology where you can search through stations, for instance, for all classical stations. One feature I like about this compared to my normal radio is that it will display rolling text from the station you are listening to, i.e. Beat 106 will show it's name, maybe who is currently DJing, and their phone number which I regularly lose.

-Tone Control

This will cut out a lot of bass, and loud parts of the film. Sounds pretty awful, but when watching a film late at night it is just the ticket! No more waking up the neighbours.

-Video Inputs

You can run anything through this almost, even a playstation. There are more inputs than I may ever need! Future proofing is always a good thing.

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As said before, I have been blown away by this amp now that I've configured it correctly. I used to think my amp was terrible, as it sounded so bad in comparison to my brother's setup, and a friend of mine who is a hifi enthusiast's system. Now it really does rival there systems! I used to console myself with the fact that I didn't pay too much for the amp, now I'm so happy, as I got this amazing sound, for not a lot at all! I would definately recommend this amp, it's amazing value. If you are a hifi fanatic you'll already know this amp isn't for you, but if you're a beginner, or intermediate hifi user, then this could be for you. On a limited budget? Get this amp. Like bass, like power? This amp is powerful, I haven't even heard the top amplification level, it's too loud!

I am using the Eltax Studio Pro 350's for my front speakers, the Eltax Liberty Center for the centre speaker, and Gale Gold Mini Monitors for the rears.

If there are any Sherwood 6106R owners reading this, who are not happy with their sound, like I was, then you can always send me your questions at thenameyouknow@hotmail.com

If this has been a bit too technical for you, and you want to get into home cinema, go and get one of these amps, and a speaker set from Eltax, and you'll love it once it's configured properly (easy, but not obvious). 

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