Sherwood RX4508 200W AM/FM Stereo Receiver with Bluetooth, Black

IMHO, no doubt this is the best two channel amp you can buy for less than $200. So what is the basis of my humble opinion? Let’s start with what this Sherwood replaced: an early 1980s vintage NAD 3020 that finally “passed”. Balance of system: Technics SL D2, Shure M 97xE, Marantz CD 5004 and ELAC B6. I listen to music through this system at both low and high volume in my home office/man cave mostly when I am (as my daughter would say) “typing” and during those occasional moments when I have the chance to do some “chillin” (as my son would say). My mix: 40% vinyl 40% streaming music through iPhone, 20% CDs. I consider myself someone who likes music, listens to a lot of it, all types. Like wine, I prefer “good quality, good value” to “perfection at any price”. So what does this Sherwood sound like (to me)? Well, first, it sounds a bit more “open” and “dynamic” and at least as “full” and “clear” as the NAD; NAD was perhaps a bit “warmer”. Now perhaps you may think that is to be expected given the comparison to 35 year old hardware, but truthfully, (as you will see if you google that amp) the NAD was (and is) considered by audiophiles to be “one of the best of all time" "no frills, very good sounding”. And truthfully, that is the main thing you are buying this amp for – no frills great amplification. A few additional notes. On the input side, the Bluetooth is magic. Great (easy) pairing, great range, and most importantly, great sound. Way better sound (and way more convenient) than the previous iPhone line out (headphone jack) to aux input that I did with the NAD. The phono stage is (as others have noted here) subpar. I fixed that by adding an outboard phono stage (ART DJ Pre II – awesome sound). CDs are the basis of the “apples to apples” comparison that I used to characterize the sound relative to the NAD. On the “fit and finish” side: binding posts for speakers (banana plug option!) excellent. No switched outlet on the back: bummer relative to that phono preamp! As old school as the amplifier design is (kind of awesome to look in the case and see an amplifier stage that doesn’t use a single integrated circuit), the control is as digital as it gets – you will want to control this via the very functional but not very aesthetic remote (the “analogue” volume knob on the receiver itself has the least satisfying volume knob feel I have ever encountered anywhere). Overall – the brushed black metal case looks at home with my other black audio equipment, and no doubt will look at home with yours.

I'm going to try mightily to be brief. I'm a baby-boom gen product, grew up with phono and amps/pre-amps, receivers.... I was a music fan as a teen, a card-carrying (AES) sound engineer and rock & roll biz person in the 80's mostly. I like music. So I've owned Macintosh and Dynaco and NAD mostly, good but easy-to-use-at-home stuff. I did some radio stuff too, so I had a reel-to-reel (needing an input), cassette in, phono in, and VCR/Beta inputs. Context. Here in the 21st century and with a dying receiver which has been ok for 15 years or so (Sony, receiver, 100W x2, with inputs and speaker options, plus phono input and tape). Something blew in the Sony. OK, a good life. What's out there now for someone like me, wants to hear the sound (driving good speakers) and have inputs, and radio is nice too. But a generational upgrade too, maybe, like something with Bluetooth. And voila. This thing is driving two sets of big speakers (Advent and Dynaco), and to my aged ears, does just fine, even at 30 - 30K Hz. Gets as loud as me or my neighbors need. As I think I've read in reviews, the volume knob is "stiff", needing a lot of turn for the buck, but no big deal, and may protect ears or speakers. The big evolution for me is the addition of the remote and subtraction of dials on the unit itself. The remote is THE interface for things formerly done by dials, like speaker balance, and tone. On the receiver there's a button to choose mode and a few for radio (I think), but the idea is to use the remote for most/all things. I use a mixer to input a few tape machines into "auxiliary". Works fine. It all works fine. And for the price it's probably pretty amazing when I think about it, compared with the 70's or 80's. (my music prime) Several minor pluses/minuses for me, but I suppose YMMV - Minus is the knob stiffness and absence of on-unit controls. Wish-list would be for some more inputs, more balance/tone/etc. control knobs, and better/easier control of speakers (now dependent on remote for adding/subtracting speakers). Again, I'm critiquing like a critic, but for this price it's pretty amazing that it does the things it does. Positives include a decent radio (in my urban environment) ... plus Bluetooth! It's very nice to finally be able to simply "beam" what I'm watching on my laptop on YouTube or some other stream, over to a set of big (I mean studio) speakers. Really a new door opening for me, upgrading from (decent) Macbook speakers to a set of studio monitors, via this receiver. Easy to pair the computer (could be a tablet or phone) to this receiver. Just choose the input, hoist up the volume, and it's really pretty decent for an Internet-fed sound stream. Short version: It works like the receivers of yore... handles "peripherals" from turntable to CD and an "auxiliary" (tape, etc.). Has the power, and can be slowly cranked up on the stiff magic dial. Mostly it's easy to do everything with the remote. Has Bluetooth built-in too. Specs (as a pro) are eh, but plenty good for 98% of users, including anyone with neighbors or old enough to remember receivers and televisions in every home!

I replaced a 35 year old Concept Receiver with the Sherwood RX 4508 becuase I wanted to receive Bluetooth radio and have a digital tuner rather then keep trying to find the exact analog FM station. The sound is better than I imagined, sharp and clear. Mostly listen to Classical with some country inbetween. Set up was easy except for the antenna. The reason for only 4 stars is that the receiver does not come with a built in AM antenna and the exterior loop antenna provided looks terrible. The FM antenna is just a wire and the connection is very tight and does not provide good reception. I listen to KUSC and live about 60 miles from the transmitter. Had a old Terk antenna around the house and once I connected that both AM and FM became great. Having a remote makes operating the system very easy and was easy to program. My system is located near the floor so I no longer have to get on my knees to change stations. One anoying problem so far is that if you switch from bluetooth to FM and go back to bluetooth you loose you bluetooth connection and it must be re-established. This happens only if you use the remote and not the main console. Could just be me since I am not overly computer literate. What is amazing is the number of stations you can receive over bluetooth and you can select music from almost any album ever produced.

I have been using this for a few weeks now. Bought it as a patio/garage amp, essentially to play "on-line" or other digital music using my tablet or laptop computer after my old one gave up the ghost. I had been using a basic plug-in Bluetooth receiver module for remote use on the patio. The Sherwood turned out to be a great buy, all of the RCA inputs I needed & the A/B speaker feature that was essential for my use. Great fidelity to my fairly high end speakers with more power than I will ever need. The most biggest bonus for me is the amazing range of the Bluetooth! I am getting close to 100 feet through a cinder-block wall (receiver is in my garage) without any signs of drop out or fidelity loss. I had been having some issues with the old "add-on" so my expectations were perhaps somewhat low, very pleasant suprise. My only con to this amp is the lack of front panel controls for some of the features, really no big deal when the day is done. Other than speaker selection, the other settings are essentially as the TV oven commercial states "set it & forget it" anyway. I simply put a chunk of Velcro on the back of the remote and to the top of the amp to keep things together - my garage workbench where the unit resides can sometimes get a bit "random :) Long story short, I would highly recommend this amplifier to anyone who doesn't need all of the bells & whistles that usually go unused anyway. Great price, Good quality, Amazon backing.

Great for a low-budget vinyl turntable setup. I bought this thing knowing exactly what I wanted out of a receiver and it delivered 100% without falling short in a facet. I needed a new receiver to plug my turntable into and have some sort of wireless auxiliary option to connect my phone with. I've had it for about a month and it's still working perfectly! It does have a built-in phono preamp input so you can directly connect your turntable. I also purchased the Edifier R1280T self-powered speakers to go with it (also a huge value for the price) and the whole system gives off a beautiful sound spectrum. Now, the speakers are self-powered and offer their own standalone volume so when plugged into the receiver's auxiliary output the Sherwood's volume control is bypassed and there's no chance of overworking the receiver which is also a plus. To anyone who wants a basic tool that will absolutely get the job done I highly recommend this to you, Sherwood's been known to make quality products and the RX4508 easily follows suit. Here are the monitors I bought to go with it, also a v dank deal: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016P9HJIA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

First I took a long time evaluating affordable receivers. This one looked like a winner, winner of flawed reliability prize Bought on january 19, arrived to Mexico City more or less 15 days later, installed a week later, it worked fine around february 8 to february 20 and use was not even daily. Just worked for around 10 to 15 days. Never in my life! No sound comming from loudspeakers, not from A system, not from B, not from AB, not even from headphones, inputs are completely muted, the most sound I get from the unt is a tick, tick, tick when rising volume. When it worked: Nice sound, nice design, nice operation, good BT, apparently good built, crappy reliability. I think problem is in software not on any physical part. I reached Sherwoods service dept. on the possibility they can send a service manual, initially and very kind they said yes but later I just got user's manual instead, two days have passed since. I hope they can back a problematic product with a responsible customer service, looks not so clear so far

EXCELLENT... I am very favorably impressed with the quality of this receiver. It is a replacement for an entry-level surround sound system that bit the dust. It is driving a 10 year old pair of BOSE 301's and an old Infinity Sub that I am connected to the B speaker jacks (though I am not sure that I really need the sub). I use it to play music from my smartphone using the on-board Bluetooth; TV sound from my cable box into "CD" input, and a DVD player sound connected into "AUX" input. All work flawlessly, delivering rich sound of a quality that I haven't heard for years. ( I am not missing surround sound one bit.) The system supplies sound for a 20' x 30', high ceiling family room, and it is plenty powerful enough to fill the room. I love the simplicity of the controls on the unit and on the remote (a delight after my last few units had millions of tiny buttons that never got used). The speaker jacks are heavier than those on most components that I have seen, which is another great feature. The unit has breathed new life into my music collection and my old 301's. I have a diverse taste in music, and it all is sounding fantastic!

This was a gift to my grandson. He is a music buff, but did not have a good HiFi stereo system. He is very knowledgable concerning music and plays various musical instruments. I thought it necessary that he had a good system. Finally, his opinion concerning musical instruments carries a lot of weight. So, when he gave me a top report concerning this Receiver it was believed. It does everything well. Bluetooth works fine and the sound quality from pairing with his smart phone seems flawless. But his first love is the the sound produced by vinyls. He has a very nice turntable which easily attached to the receiver. There is something about vinyl that sets it apart from other inputs. This receiver produces that specific sound. I know because I have heard his system. He reports decent FM reception, very good stereo separation, clear sound at low to high volume. He said it is a joy to use. There is not much to criticize about the item without sounding petty. The front display is hard to see in certain lighting, but that’s not much of a concern. So based on his reports and my experience and on site observation I can easily recommend this receiver. It does what a receiver should do, be the heart of a stereo system.

UPDATE: Se agregó una estrella al producto porque con unas bocinas de buena calidad como las S55 de Polk el RX4508 demuestra su verdadero potencial de audio que es muy superior al inicialmente reseñado. El Sherwood RX4508 es un receptor con características atractivas para su precio: sistema análogo de amplificación (D.A.S.), potencia total de 200W RMS en 2 canales, receptor AM/FM y conectividad Bluetooth. Con un diseño limpio, sencillo y elegante, una pantalla luminosa fácil de leer y un pequeño led para indicar el estado de la conectividad Bluetooth. El frontal del receptor tiene un control giratorio de volumen así como botones de encendido, cambio de fuente de entrada (input), un botón de memoria para estaciones de radio y dos botones de función múltiple. Otras funciones importantes como el balance y control de frecuencias bajas y altas sólo son accesibles mediante el control remoto, una limitación importante pues si el control se pierde o daña es imposible realizar ese tipo de ajustes. La primera recomendación para usar este aparato es que se debe tener especial cuidado en la elección de las bocinas que se le van a conectar, es compatible únicamente con bocinas mínimo de 8 Ohms𝝮 (Ohmios) de impedancia, si se usan bocinas de 6 Ohms𝝮 o menos la sección de amplificación se sobrecalienta y activa el circuito de protección del receptor apagándolo. Además, es recomendable que las bocinas tengan una capacidad similar a la salida de potencia del aparato (mínimo 75 W y máximo 150 W), emplear bocinas de baja potencia aumenta el riesgo de que se revienten a alto volumen, y conectarlo a bocinas excesivamente potentes causa distorsión y pueden quemarse fácilmente los tweeters. En mi caso lo probé con dos pares diferentes de bocinas de 8 Ohms 𝝮: unas Polk Monitor 40 Series II de 125 W y unas Sony SS-F5000 de 150 W conectando cada par por separado, si se desea usarlo con 2 juegos de bocinas simultáneamente (en los canales A y B) es indispensable que sean de 16 Ohms𝝮 cada una. No hay que perder de vista que los 100 W por canal son para 2 bocinas, si conectamos otro par en el canal B recibirán igual 100 W cada una siempre y cuando sólo esté activo un canal, si se activan los canales A+B (las 4 bocinas a la vez) la potencia para cada una se reduce a la mitad por lo que obtendremos una potencia real de 50 W por bocina. En cuanto al sonido, es cálido, con detalle y de buena potencia gracias al amplificador T.D.A. que sin problemas ofrece suficiente potencia para un espacio grande, sin embargo el ruido de fondo (estática) es muy perceptible entre pistas musicales y se escucha cuando ni siquiera está reproduciendo música en cualquier fuente (radio, CD, auxiliar, Phono o Bluetooth). Afortunadamente la estática permanece siempre al mismo nivel y no aumenta cuando se sube el volumen. Este detalle puede deberse a una mediocre calidad en los capacitores de la sección de potencia o a un deficiente aislamiento en el transformador eléctrico, no es particularmente molesto el ruido pero si uno está acostumbrado a los amplificadores digitales que prácticamente no tienen ruido de fondo, sí es algo a considerar con este receptor. En cuanto a la conectividad, el RX4508 cuenta con 3 entradas (inputs) analógicas (RCA) para CD, Phono (tocadiscos con pastilla MM) y Auxiliar, 2 salidas (outputs) también analógicas para CD y auxiliar, 1 salida de audífonos, así como conectividad inalámbrica vía Bluetooth con códec aptX para dispositivos compatibles. Todas las conexiones cableadas tienen excelente ganancia y nitidez, pero se echa de menos la falta de una entrada óptica para audio digital, y la salida de audífonos no se activa automáticamente al conectar el jack, es necesario apagar las salidas A y/o B de las bocinas usando el control remoto para que se active la salida de audífonos. Además, la calidad de audio Bluetooth no es tan buena como la de modelos similares de Yamaha y Onkyo que por supuesto cuestan un poco más, en el Sherwood el sonido BT carece de articulación y adecuada brillantez en las frecuencias altas pero aún así cumple. Si necesitas es un receptor estéreo de buena calidad a un precio accesible sin duda que el Sherwood RX4508 no te decepcionará, es inmensamente superior a alternativas baratas como Pyle o marcas similares. Pero buscas un equipo con audio, duración y características sobresalientes mejor es que consideres gastar por lo menos el doble en un Marantz, Denon, Onkyo o Yamaha. Pros: - Sonido potente, cálido y detallado gracias al amplificador analógico D.A.S. - Conectividad Bluetooth con códec aptX. - Sintonizador AM/FM con memoria para 30 estaciones de radio. - Modalidad Tone Direct (frecuencia plana) o ajuste para graves y agudos. - Diseño sobrio y atractivo. - Entrada Phono preamplificada para tocadiscos de acetatos. - Excelente precio. Contras: - Ruido de fondo más elevado de lo normal. - Carece de entradas digitales. - Sólo es compatible con bocinas de 8 Ohms𝝮 o más. - Sólo es posible conectar 4 bocinas si son de 16 Ohms𝝮. - Audio Bluetooth con calidad apenas pasable. - Algunas funciones importantes únicamente son accesibles con el control remoto. - Durabilidad cuestionable por ser un receptor de gama de entrada.

La verdad me esperé un tiempo antes de evaluarlo porque quería saber si presentaría algún desperfecto en estos meses de uso, sin duda es un excelente compra en cuanto a precio calidad, el sonido es muy bueno por el precio que uno abona, el bluetooth se conecta facilmente, aunque me hubiera gustado que se pudieran conectar varios dispositivos y solo lo hace uno por vez, obvio que no estoy diciendo de reproducir varios al mismo tiempo. Y otro tema que me hubiera gustado pero cuando lo compré sabía de esta característica es que no le hubiera venido nada mal una entrada y salida hdmi.

Pensé en esta consola por el costo y realmente es como tener un mini componente sin potencia y sonido acartonado, realmente fue muy mala compra, inviertan un poco más y no tiren su dinero

Excelente. Equipo solo que se apaga cuando le subes mucho volumen , creo que se autoprotección pq lo encuentra y normal no sé si no esté bien acoplado las impedancia de las bocinas

Si le subes mucho el volumen entra en corto y ya no funciona. Casi al maximo