Home Theater Forum and Systems banner

Sherwood/Newcastle R-972 Official Thread

230K views 950 replies 79 participants last post by  Linkage2010 
#1 · (Edited)
Well I got my R-972 today from accessories4less (that shipped to me from Florida to Edmonton Canada in just 2 days!) and had an hour to hook it up and play with it just a little.
First impressions are is that it was probably one of the best investments I could have made :)

Out of the box this receiver is huge! the weight is about 45lbs although Ive red conflicting reports that it weighs as much as 60lbs. No matter how you look at it its a beast for size and covers the top shelf of my AV rack completely and its very tall for a receiver.
I hooked all my gear up to it and the main speakers (I plan only using this as a two channel setup) I then powered it up and it came to life without any issues (First sigh of releaf given the distance it traveled). Without even having time to do any of the settings or even running Trinnov I played my iPod and could not believe the clarity of the sound, It brought my Missions to life it seems. they were clean and like my EV sentrys downstairs sounded much more dynamic and the separation was outstanding!

Im going to spend some more time playing tomorrow but for now I am thrilled by what its done even without any room eq applied :T

To check the version of your R-972 firmware:
hold Display and Enter/Memo

To reset the R-972 to factory settings:
Once in Standby Mode, press and hold down the STANDBY & MEMO/ENTER buttons simultaneously for at least 3 seconds. This will reset the unit and it will turn on automatically. If the reset was successful, you should notice that the receiver powers up at 87.5 FM . If not, repeat the reset process.

Information on installing the bass boost Hex files here
 
See less See more
#498 ·
I was running my speakers with a crossover at 60Hz, Trinnov has them at 50.
 
#501 ·
The bass crossover frequencies set within Trinnov are the arithmetic mean between the measured response of the subwoofer and the individual channel. While this can differ from the THX mandated 80 Hz many of us are used to, in my experience with over 100 different systems, the Trinnov method is completely acceptable.

Jeff
 
#505 ·
I would be surprised if you would get the 3 year warranty with that deal or get any sort of exchange help if there is issues so take that into account.
 
#507 ·
I bought one of those ebay refurbs and it has been going strong for a few months already. This price is even better since I got mine for $350 with only the 90 day warranty, for the same price I could have the Square Trade warranty on top.

I have never had any problems buying refurbished gear, I have had more problems with new gear.
 
#512 ·
I find it's like having an old replica/kit car: there's no manual (there is one, it just won't answer most of your questions), there's a great internet support base for it, you have to tweak and wrench on it for a while to get it working, but once working it is pretty amazing.

I would have been mad if I spent $2k on this, but for $500, it's been a great performer.

Welcome to the club!
 
#514 ·
I so agree, it has is quirks but the sound you get from it is just fantastic! $500 well spent :)
+1 - the remote is not that great and it has some quirks when switching inputs, but it has been the perfect unit for my vaulted ceiling, open living room area.
 
#513 ·
I so agree, it has is quirks but the sound you get from it is just fantastic! $500 well spent :)
 
#515 ·
I am still very happy with my 972 as well, so much so I bought a second.

The quirks only really bug me when I am tired or when I was sick with the flu, not the receiver for people with little patience.
 
#516 ·
Speaking of frustrating problems with this:
I've always had a little nit with this unit and my Pronto remote. The power on command sometimes gets ignored, which really screws up my macros. It occasionally happens with the factory remote, but always seems to happen with the Pronto.

The database seems fine, as many of the commands work in the test mode, it's just power on that seems to get missed.

Anyone else had some remote weirdness with this unit?
 
#517 ·
I use a Harmony remote with the RF repeater upstairs and sometimes it fails to turn off the 972. I also use a Harmony downstairs and if I am turning on the system on anything other than the last input it was on it will miss the command for the correct input 70% of the time. I can fix the last issue by telling the Harmony to delay the input command a few more seconds but haven't got around to it yet. I have never had either one not turn on though that I recall.
 
#528 ·
I have the exact same problem with mine, one of these days I will get around to setting a delay.

Can you tell a harmony remote the order you want the signals sent? If you can tell it Receiver 1st then say TV, Cable box etc then go back to the receiver last for the input change you might be able to get everything to work without having to introduce a delay.
 
#518 ·
The power on issue is just because the remote sensor on the receiver is not very sensitive. If I dont have the Harmoney pointed at the receiver correctly it will miss it. I got around the input delay problem by simply programming a "input select" button on the screen of my 880
 
#519 ·
That makes sense. Mine is off to the side a bit, so I'm hitting the sensor at about a 15 to 20 degree angle.

I'll try angling the receiver a little bit towards the couch and see if it makes things more reliable.

Just found another nit: I watched a movie I was pretty familiar with and noticed nothing was coming out of my surrounds. I put in an old Avia disc and sure enough, only the fronts came through. Funny thing is, I toyed around with some settings and surround right (5.1) came through at the front left. Weird.

The distances and angles measured right to every speaker in Trinnov. I don't have a way to test a full 7.1, but I seem to remember hearing surround activity in the past. I'll run the Trinnov again tomorrow and see if I can get it remapped.
 
#520 ·
Remember that each input can have its own trinnov setting. Is it possible it was changed?
 
#521 ·
I only have two inputs (TV and BluRay) and they were both Position 1, LVL+DLY, Cinema

I do have a weird setup that I don't have a center or sub yet (still building them), but the L/R and four surrounds (ceiling, tweeters aimed at couch) are installed. With Trinnov off, I get a good test signal in all of them.

I'll re-mic it tomorrow and put a priority on getting the sub and center built. My odd setup might be confusing the algorithms.

With Trinnov off, I really miss the front sound-stage. It balanced my front speakers (tonally) very well.
 
#526 ·
I do have a weird setup that I don't have a center or sub yet (still building them), but the L/R and four surrounds (ceiling, tweeters aimed at couch) are installed. With Trinnov off, I get a good test signal in all of them.

I'll re-mic it tomorrow and put a priority on getting the sub and center built. My odd setup might be confusing the algorithms.

With Trinnov off, I really miss the front sound-stage. It balanced my front speakers (tonally) very well.
I had read on another forum that there can be a bug when only running a 4.0 or 4.1 set-up in that it confuses Trinnov. If I remember correctly the Trinnov rep suggested to add a single back surround just temporarily for the Trinnov calibration then remove it after and the calibration should be good.
I am running a 4.1 channel config in my second system and it sounds fine to me, maybe I got lucky?

With Trinnov on my other system which is 7.1 I did run some test signals with the Disney Wow disc and it really shows you how Trinnov actually works. When playing a left surround signal my back surrounds would also put out noise but when in the MLP it sounds like it is just that channel. This happens with a lot of other channels as well as it seems Trinnov uses any channel it feels necessary to achieve the 3D spatial re-mapping. I found it very interesting to try as I really didn't grasp how Trinnov worked but after that I had a little better understanding.
 
#525 ·
The thing is, it still shows that it is playing in Trinnov Surround mode.

I disabled Trinnov and this morning my wife calls and says the surround speakers are playing, but nothing from the fronts. I had her put it in regular Stereo mode and I'll look at it again tonight. Weird.
 
#531 ·
Re: remote I'll try reordering the macro to see if that fixes it

Re: sub/center I just had an idea. I'm going to run an old full range speaker as my sub in the corner with my external amp and see if that helps. Wont' go as deep as a sub (or loud), but should allow Trinnov to find another data point.
 
#534 ·
So I added an old speaker as a subwoofer and reran trinnov.

First, sad face, my old NHT SA-2 subwoofer amp is probably dead. :( Every time it got signal it would pop and huff. You could hear the pink noise in the background, but it was obvious something was wrong. I swapped in another amp (an old monoblock tube amp) and it worked fine, so obviously the sub amp. Guess I'm shopping on Parts Express tonight.

After doing the measurements and such, the results are much better. I can hear it working the surrounds much better and the autoroute or 2D remap works really well. Good center image, music and effects can be heard in the surrounds but not localized.

So I guess the Trinnov was having trouble with my small fronts but no sub and lack of center. Still no center, but the EQ part of it seems to work now.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top