Despite purchasing it without hearing it first, paying full list price ($1300) and waiting 3 months for delivery (I was among the first to get one), I have not had one second of buyer's remorse. This receiver is everything the specs indicate plus more. It is a beautiful, high quality piece. It sounds terrific, has a great remote, and is imminently usable. The documentation that comes with it, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Thats OK though, things this good shouldn't come too easily. Check this month's Stereophile Guide to Home Theater for a fairly glowing review. My only complaint is the lack of a 4 or 5 way stereo mode for music. The only way to use the rears on a music source (other than a DTS CD which, by the way, is amazing)is to use one of the DSP modes (church, etc.), which is not usually desirable. AC3, DTS, 5 discrete 100w amps, on screen menus, clean video switching, etc., etc. I recommend it over anything less than twice its price.

Come on!!!! It still says Sherwood across the front and Sherwood preformance is all you get. Why do you think that Yamaha and B&K both have products that are simialr in specs to the 945 that cost twice as much. Well, I will tell you, in audio 2 times the money doesn't always equal 2 times the preformance. In the case of this unit, it does.

"Chris from MD's" well reasoned review rests upon the "fact" that 'if it says Sherwood on it, it sucks'. First of all, if s/he was involved in hi fi longer than the last 10 years, he would know that Sherwood was one of the original, hi end manufacturers and a maker of legendary equipment. Secondly, the company that owns Sherwood also makes or has made equipment for Yamaha, Marantz, HK, and others that he is so impressed with. Lastly, he provided the valuable service of reviewing the brand name rather than the product. If he had actually ever experienced the R945, which I'm sure he hasn't, I think he would feel differently. But then, he is from MD and everyone from MD is an idiot. An excellent receiver and a great value.

Luke, Toy Story IS recorded in DTS, not just the Pro Logic you don't care about.

To the "reviewer" who mentioned the great scene from Toy Story: how about a better refrent? -I really don't care what it sounds like in ProLogic.
To the "reviewer" who set it up in January, that must have been a pre-production model. The so-called "finished" R-945s didn't start shipping until March, anything before then is an incomplete sample model.

I have had my 945 for a approx. 3 weeks now. So far, it has been very impressive. The separation in DTS and AC-3 mode is very good. The famous Toy Story "Truck" scene sounds very cool indeed. While I'm sure you could spend a ton of dough to get something you could attach all the audio buzzwords to, it probably would not sound much better. I am however going to add some more power to it. I seems a little weaker than advertised. Paid full list from a specialty store and thankful I did. They (Systems Design Group, Redondo Beach, Ca.) have been very helpfull. Highly recommended!

After listening to products from Sony, Onkyo, Denon and Yamaha, I decided to purchase the Sherwood Newcastle because of sound qualities that were as good as separates. Also, this is one of the few receivers that integrates Dolby Digital, Pro Logic and DTS into one unit. The specs on this unit rival most separates from other manufacturers. My home theater and CDs have never sounded so good! I previously owned Yamaha separates which this receiver now replaced. Unlike most receivers, it's tuner section is superb. Very little static with an aural presence of a live performance. If you are looking for a separates sound qualities but are on a receiver budget, you need to take a look at this receiver.

This receiver is a quality piece of equipment that sounds equally at home with music or video. The features work together in an intelligent fashion and the sound quality is excellent. I hope DTS catches on because the sample disk and an Eagles album that I borrowed from a friend sound great. The R-945 also has an excellent tuner. I find myself listening to FM radio for the first time in many years. FM is not CD quality (and never could be), but it's about as good as it gets with this receiver.

This receiver is pretty nice. There are some disadvantages though. Such as What is Cinema Bass? it just boosts 70hz a little bit more. The DSP Settings are pretty good though (I prefer Yamaha). Both the DTS and DD Decoding were equal. although I prefer DD to DTS since more movies are recorded in DD than in DTS. Take for example Titanic. Almost all theaters are using DD for that movie cause it was originally mixed with DD. Although there are DTS versions too but all in all Dolby Digital is the Main Sound Encoding Method. MCA/Universal is the ONLY company supporting nothing but DTS (although for now DVD's are encoded in DD). Columbia-Tristar supports nothing but DD. So if you don't care about a Higher Bitrate than get the Lower Model with no DTS Decoding. Unless you plan on buying the DTS Version of Titanic and alot of other movies for twice the price but not twice the sound.

Well that was amusing. I certainly have heard the 945. I am not sure if you are serious or are just trying to goud me into a fight. As for the lenth of time I have been in audio I think I might just surprise you. I am very aware of Inktel.
A Sherwood Newcastle 945 was delivered to work on Jan 2 and one of our installers took it home. He had arranged for the unit to be sent to him. On the 7th I went over to his house to hear dts in the home. I was suprised to see an interesting demonstration. Also a complete notebook of gripes he was sending to Sherwood about the unit.

"Check this out!" We were watching DiSH Network through the analog ins of the 945. Sound was about midfi I guess. Not to different from the Denon he has. He walked up to the unit and tapped it with his fingure. "RATTLE BUZZZ!" The chassie seemed to have a very live quality to it. Odd thing... then all the sound sudenly went to the left front. All the other channels were silent. he then showed me how to remedy the situation. "Press here, real hard!" I pushed on the analog ins and squezed them towards the front of the unit. TADA Dolby Pro Logic worked again!

This would also happen by itself if the unit was on for a while. Darian thought the 6ohm speakers in his HT were asking to much of the Sherwood and it was over heating and expanding. Hopefully I can get him to come on in and give you a full write up. There were a whole handfull of things that made the unit unsuitable to his HT. So it was returned.