New A/V receivers are always plentiful at CES. One is from a company called Sherwood and it is known as the Sherwood R-972. Price is around $1,800.

The Sherwood R-972 is Sherwood’s new flagship receiver. You get a lot of features for your almost two grand: 100 watts RMS per channel for each of its seven channels, HDMI 1.3b support, decoding lossless audio from Blu-ray/HD DVD and a very advanced speaker performance measurement system.

Get the full scoop on the Sherwood R-972 after the jump.

SHERWOOD NEWCASTLE ADDS FLAGSHIP RECEIVER
R-972 supports HDMI 1.3, lossless audio decoding, 1080p video scaling and
marks the debut of the $13,000 Trinnov Opimizer Room Correction system in a consumer product

January 6, 2008 – Sherwood America Inc., one of the world’s leading manufacturer of high performance audio equipment, today introduced the flagship receiver in their high-performance Newcastle line-up. Rated at 100 watts RMS per channel for each of its 7 powered channels, the Sherwood R-972 fully supports HDMI 1.3b standard, scales all video to 1080p via the Silicon Optix Reon processor, decodes lossless audio via dual TI 32-bit DSP chips, uses a Dual Mode™ RF plus IR remote control and marks the consumer debut of the Trinnov Optimizer Digital Room Correction system in a consumer device.

According to Jeffrey Hipps, Sherwood’s Sr. VP for Marketing and Product Planning, “The R-972 was designed offer a completely contemporary suite of high performance audio/video features yet it needed to stand out from the pack. By incorporating small differences like our use of an RF remote control for complete system operation, a special installer memory block that can recall the units initial settings at any time and one big difference, our inclusion of the Trinnov Optimizer Room Correction System, I think we are 100% on target.”

The R-972 has a handsome and attractive appearance with its black aluminum face-plate, spun aluminum knobs, 2-line information display and modesty door.

The R-972 has four HDMI 1.3 inputs and 7 analog video inputs. Able to convert legacy analog video to HDMI and to scale all video to resolutions up to 1080p, the R-972 can accommodate virtually any existing consumer source and allows one-wire hook-up to advanced video displays. The R-972 decodes lossless audio from HD-DVD and Blu-Ray sources and is capable of 36-bit”Deep Color” video. Both formats offer the highest quality ever available to consumers.

System control is simplified by our use of a dual-mode (RF + IR) remote control and the inclusion of an RS-232 communications port. Consumers and installers can operate complete systems that include the R-972 virtually any way they want.

With full multi-source, triple-zone playback capability, the R-972 is ready for whole-house AV.

As decorators, not audio experts, are specifying component and placement requirements today, the R-972 is up to the task. With its debut of the Trinnov Optimizer Digital Room Correction system, the R-972 not only flattens system response, it can also re-position speakers electronically to insure superb audio performance even if they are acoustically misplaced.

The Trinnov Optimizer uses an Acoustic Probe with four mic-capsules to measure speaker performance and room location in 3 dimensions, then uses advanced digital filtering techniques to compensate for acoustic defects in the speakers and their room interaction. To restore the original acoustic wave-front, the Optimizer can re-position the acoustic centers of each channel to conform with the ITU standard for surround music, raise or lower an out-of-plane channel, or even shift the entire perspective. The result is virtually perfect imaging.

Trinnov users can write stored performance data to the R-972’s USB jack, sign on to our website, load the stored data and print before-and-after graphs of their system. New target curves will be offered on the web so users can match the sound of their system to their playback material.

MSRP for the R-972 is $1799.95 and it will be available in March, 2008.

Sherwood