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By: Zeke Pliskin
5th Jul 2018
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"An oldie but a goodie..."
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I picked this amp up used at the same time I grabbed a Goldring Lenco GL75 vintage transcription turntable from a friendly and knowledgeable chap on Gumtree. The turntable impressed me a lot, but that's a story for another review.
I grabbed this as I also needed something with a phono preamp built-in, a lot of modern hi-fi and AV amps are completely lacking this feature. As such, I've only ever used it for the turntable, but I have to say, the tone is incredible.
The mids are so well-detailed and defined they don't need a control on the amp or a graphic EQ inline to "fix" them. The bass and treble controls are very responsive and sweep on or off a lot of either in a way that's very conductive to almost any style of music you might choose to listen to. The Loudness button is a godsend, pushing in some extra low and high end, so much so that I rarely turn it off as it helps brings the vinyls to life with clearer kick drum and cymbal tone especially. Usually EQ controls horribly colour the tone; in this case it's a nice benefit.
So the signal path for me is Goldring Lenco GL75 Turntable -> Sherwood AX4050R Amplifier -> Cambridge Audio SX60 2-Way Stereo Speakers (impedance matched to the amp). Everything I play on this fairly inexpensive setup has punch, clarity and really gets your head bobbing, making owning and playing vinyl a real joy again. The only problem is keeping the volume levels below deafening so as not to upset housemates and neighbours, something I regularly fail to do sadly for them.
In conclusion I would say, great bit of kit and very cheap to grab due to the age. Mine doesn't have the weird 200Hz hum problem that is related to capacitors in the A/C supply going, maybe it only applies to US 120v models rather than my 240v UK one, but either way, as long as it lasts I will continue to use it. I thought eventually I'd need a valve amp but honestly, it sounds pretty warm and full to my ears. I sometimes run it in a pseudo 7.1 surround sound by having the tape loop out of the Sherwood feeding my Sony STR-DE595 set to Dolby Pro Logic II for a massive room filling sound that almost mimics being in the room as the album is being recorded! The tape loop is also pretty good for feeding to a USB adapter to rip vinyls, if a little flat on bass/treble response (maybe I should use the headphone out and see if that helps, so I can add some extra tone that way).
Would I recommend this? You bet. Performance on a tight price point, if that's not a bargain I don't know what is!
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40 people liked this review.
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By: RIchard Adams
27th Feb 2017
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"AX-4050R"
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Had it forever it seems and still working great. About 10 years ago it delveoped a hum. Simply replaced a couple of capacitors inside and it was back to factory condition,
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45 people liked this review.
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By: Leslie Needham
6th Oct 2014
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"Sherwood AX-4050R amp + Sherwood CD-3050R...CD player."
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I bought this amp from Richer Sounds along with the Sherwood CD-3050R cd player. I bought them in the late 1990s and I get incredible sound using a pair of Mordaunt Short MS20i Pearl edition speakers. The equipment has been boxed since I moved to Portugal in 2008 and when I set it up today, it still sounded superb. Sadly, I have to sell the amp, cd player and speakers as I don't have the room to leave it set up.
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34 people liked this review.
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By: Gary Verbickas
23rd May 2014
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"Sherwood AX-4050R"
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I bought one in 2000 from Richer Sounds and it has been a great amp. Sadly it has broken down. It shorts out, and there is a low buzz that comes out of the right channel. I have taken it to two repair shops here in Spain where I now live and they cannot find the replacement parts. I have a list of the parts it needs but cannot find them on E-bay.
Because of this I cannot use my Mission speakers that sound so good with it so I`m reduced to using a small speaker system for computers, which I plug into the headphone output of my CD player. I would have given it a 5 rating but as it no longer works I can only give it 3.
I also bought a Sherwood CD player the same year from Richers and that broke after a few years. The CD draw does not open.
It has been the first time in my life that I have bought hi-fi that has broken down. I was a loyal customer at Richers and would´nt normally go anywhere else, but they don´t deliver abroad and decent equipment here in Spain is very expensive. A similar amp here costs about 100 Euros more than in the U.K.
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27 people liked this review.
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By: Jay B
2nd Sep 2013
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"Sherwood AX-4050R"
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I purchased this amp for £149.99 from Richer sounds in 2000 and it still works in 2013!
This is a powerful amp pumping out 50 watts per channel.
This amp has a clear, powerful and wide sound stage with plenty of detail
especially if coupled with a high quality source and high quality speakers.
This amp beats a lot of amps twice as expensive!
A truly great buy.
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29 people liked this review.
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By: Darren
6th Feb 2012
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"The Dog's Danglies"
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I've owned one of these for about 15 years. It's just about loosened up. Coupled with a pair of Mordaunt Short MS202s, it's simply unbeatable, especially for the price. I am praying that it keeps going forever as I would hate to have to replace it! Just brilliant!
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43 people liked this review.
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![[Thumbnail]](https://www.hifidatabase.com/static/gallery/6/10026-Sherwood_AX-4050R_wm.JPG)
![[Thumbnail]](https://www.hifidatabase.com/static/gallery/7/10027-Sherwood_AX-4050R_b_wm.JPG)
