Went to check out a local thrift store and found this one for a price I just couldn't refuse. Didn't know a thing about it, but since it was a heavy beast advertising 200W / channel @ 8 ohms and I could see two quite beefy transformers inside, I took it home. Found a service manual online, and the first thing I notice is there's an op-amp right at the input, that was a bit discouraging. Not that I'm against op-amps or that they can't be part of a good sounding design, just that often that's not the case. Looking further there's a FET input stage and MOSFET powerstage with 4 SK1058s & 2SJ162s per channel.
Well what do you know, it powers on and DC-offset is very stable, both channels in the 0-2mV range so I hook it up and messing with the cables nearly blew off my ears and speakers because I forgot to turn off the speaker outputs. I usually use cheap and disposable speakers trying out gear in unknown condition, but perhaps luckily went for the JBLs this time because anything else I have probably would've fried.
The only preamp I own at the moment is a cheap Little Bear that's been sitting on the shelf gathering dust. It's not a great piece of kit, but it's decent enough. The Sherwood gives a pretty good first impression, definitely has some serious grunt and power available. A bit forward in the midrange but it could be the pre, it's been a while since I used it and I think it might've been a bit midrangey sounding with the valves I have in it currently. I'm not a big fan of MOSFETs in general but I'd say this one sounds better than the Adcom something or other I had (I think 5300).
So now I have 25kgs of power amp I have no idea what to do with... at least I got it cheap A little picture straight from the top:
and a link to google image search, which brings up some nudies among the first results: https://www.google.fi/search?q=sherw...dPKOwsjVp_XVM: