Sherwood s7800 US made in 1969

[Motorola minion]

I have an affinity for Sherwood that was started by the model S-2200 tuner introduced just before stereo FM. My grandfather bought one with his Scott 222 amp in 1961, was so impressed he got a second one to play over the PA system(S-C Signet 70 using 6550 pp) in his machine shop. The 70 watt output was pared down to about 5 watts each to the dozen or so Utah speakers via the 70 volt speaker wiring.

This receiver was of the last Sherwood components made in Chicago. Once made in Japan, Sherwood was decent quality like the newly-offshore-produced Harmon Kardon 330. Still, you cannot beat a USA-made solid state receiver like this or HH Scott, etc. The serviceability is excellent as there are no oddball parts. Just Bendix and other premium transistors which rarely fail.

The s7800 was introduced as an "all-silicon" solid state receiver in 1966 with sucessive improvements. I bought this late production model and its little brother, the s7600 at a swap meet 10 years ago from Ron Ramirez, author of the Philco radio book. Both sets needed recapping, especially the 1mf to 100mf ranges. Power supply and speaker coupling caps 500 mf to 2000 mf tested good ESR. I use these alternately in my detached garage until one of the preamp transistors in s7600 crapped out and one of two "microcircuits" (early 6-lead with four transistors for IF and detector stages) inside in the s7800 went. I was able to get both parts and restore them to original operation.

Garage? why there?

1. Sherwood tuners with FET (field effect transistor) front end are able to select much weaker adjacent channels to strong stations. Lousy reception locations need a receiver like this, an absolute must in this area! Translators have been popping up all over FM band, making this problem worse. I have a Winegard 10-element FM antenna on the garage roof with a rotor so I can aim at desired signals and de-select the too-strong signals my location is saturated with.

2. The 70 watts per channel is into 4 ohms. The Pyle 12" units I have are not that low but at 1/3 volume, the headroom is incredible and the Magnavox horns are intense even through my 2nd order crossover. No way can I play this in the house when anyone is home.

3. Solid state units, if left on inadvertently, will probably be ok. I often have it on while doing yard work, as Im always in & out of garage but still want to hear it. I play records on a 59 Magnavox stereO-rama that resides there also but it shuts off automatically

First picture is a circa 1979 Sherwood s7125b, sold a few years ago. Made in Taiwan IIRC

[TC Chris]

Sherwood was a kind of Heath company back then--good design, inexpensive prices. Consumer Reports always selected them for recommendation. Their tuners were especially competent. All of my Sherwoods (well, 2 of them total) are Asian but capable. One is an S7010 and the other an S7125 like yours. The S7010 was my brother "desk receiver" but one channel filed. Then it worked for me as my shop receiver, and then it failed again. I figured it out: it was the contact in the headphone jack, which cuts the speakers out. Even the Asian versions are cool devices but I'd love to have some old tube models.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I know capacitors can be a problem in solid state equipment, but do the resistors drift like they tend to do in tube equipment?

[Motorola minion]

I know capacitors can be a problem in solid state equipment, but do the resistors drift like they tend to do in tube equipment?

In short, not really due to the generally lower values of resistors in transistor equipment. Being current driven, rather than voltage like tubes, all the impedances are lower.

The biggest value changes seem to be with carbon composition resistors over 10,000 ohms. Carbon resistor values drift upward over time, equipment used hard that gets hot exacerbates this upward drift.

Age is the other factor, evidenced by all the never-used NOS 1/2 watt resistors I tossed out once I got a new selection, all sorted too

[Motorola minion]

Sherwood was a kind of Heath company back then--good design, inexpensive prices. Consumer Reports always selected them for recommendation. Their tuners were especially competent. All of my Sherwoods (well, 2 of them total) are Asian but capable. One is an S7010 and the other an S7125 like yours. The S7010 was my brother "desk receiver" but one channel filed. Then it worked for me as my shop receiver, and then it failed again. I figured it out: it was the contact in the headphone jack, which cuts the speakers out. Even the Asian versions are cool devices but I'd love to have some old tube models.

Chris Campbell

That s7125 had a stubborn selector switch which wouldn't pass the left channel on FM, Somehow I got it working after monkeying with the wiring and relentless cleaning. Only putting in this effort after reclaiming after loaning it to the CAD department at work until they got XM. My daughter's friend got the 7125 along with my Sherwood belt drive TT and bookshelf speakers only after she got him a gift of "vinyl", he needed something to play it on. A very decent receiver but very simple too.