Originally Posted by
helma
Yeah I think Sherwood was more famous (or not) for budget gear, this one seems a more serious effort though. I've been listening to it for a few hours now, it's a good sounding amp with very healthy power reserves and good dynamics.
The thing with MOSFETs is ever since I got extensive experience with a MOSFET based guitar amp (there was a time in the 80s MOSFETs were all the rage for trying to get a valve like sound and distortion characteristics/behaviour from a transistor amp), there's a certain "MOSFET tinge" in the sound I seem to often hear. Not so much with this one as the Adcom though, actually I'm not 100% I'd notice it in this Sherwood if I didn't know it was a MOSFET design, where as with the Adcom it was very clear - I had no preconceived notions of how MOSFETs are supposed to sound when I fired that one up, but it instantly brought back memories of that Marshall Lead 20 or whatever it might've been called.
Guitar amps really pronounce differences since things are often driven to distortion - even "clean" tones are often on the sweet spot right at the edge of break up. I used to think my experience with guitar amps was good for nothing regarding hifi, thinking they are completely separate worlds since one is about just producing what is there cleanly and other is about making the amplifier an instrument in itself. But I've come to find out the sound characteristics tend to be there in hifi as well (valves vs solid state, bjt vs fet etc.) just subtly in good kit at least.
In any case I'd love to hear this one with a more competent preamp. Maybe I'll try putting together a little passive volume control from surplus parts (if I have some). Need to give this one some time (and time for my ears to adjust), might end up being a keeper.
Early solid state guitar amps put me off solid state for many years, they just sounded dead, no sparkle.
Bakoon 13r Denon DP80 Stax UA-70 Shure Ultra 500 in a Martin Bastin body with jico stylus, project ds2 digital Rullit aero 8 field coils in tqwt speakers
Office system, DIY CSS fullrange speakers with aurum cantus G2 ribbons yulong dac Sony STR6055 receiver Jvc QL-A51 direct drive turntable, Leema sub. JVC Z4S cart is in the house
Garage system another Sony receiver, cassette deck
System components are subject to change without warning and at the discretion of the owner.