The truth about Sherwood Newcastle

I like Sherwood, in fact one of their fine Newcastle P-965 preamp/processors is currently somewhere in the nebulous world of parcel shipping, destined for my doorstep. This post is a place for me to put some information I've found on the history of company. It's not that Sherwood is trying to hide their current ownership by a Korean company and their relationship to other hi-fi brands, it's just that their website isn't exactly clear on it, and that's led to some confusion on the net and from the local dealer.

Today

Sherwood America is a division of Etronics Corporation of Seoul, Korea. To put it another way, Etronics is a large OEM who also sells their own equipment under various brand names, including Inkel, Vatel, Sherwood (the cheaper stuff) and Sherwood Newcastle (the good stuff). The Newcastle gear is manufactured in ChunAm, South Korea, and the other in China.

History

Sherwood Electronic Labs was founded in Chicago 1953 by audio engineer Ed Miller. In 1980, Sherwood was acquired by Inkel Corporation of Korea. Around 1995 Inkel was acquired by the Haitai group in Korea and became known as Haitai Electronics. When the financial crisis hit Asia in 1997, the Haitai Group was broken up (it is now defunct) and some of the Inkel acquisition was rolled back. With the Haitai name then discredited and Inkel still in the professional electronics business, a new name, Etronics, was chosen.

OEM

An original equipment manufacturer, OEM, is a company that builds products or components that are used in products sold by another company. Sherwood claims that they are the manufacturer of "nearly one third of the world's high performance receivers". I've heard brands like Adcom, SAE, Kenwood, Marantz, Philips, Yamaha, Denon and Harman Kardon and I've also heard the 1/3 figure was closer to reality in the 90s and that Harmon Kardon no longer uses Etronics. The real numbers of OEMs are a secret. This is understandable since the high-end A/V world is full of brands that are little more than their name on someone else's product for a lot more money.

One Sherwood OEM customer that isn't a secret is Outlaw Audio. They're a refreshingly open company that is frank about the fact they outsource the manufacture of all their products. Their 990 pre/pro is based on my P-965 and the Outlaw website not only says this, but outlines what they feel they've added to the product with their version. In this case the Outlaw direct sales model means their version is actually sold for less. (But I bought my P-965 used)

So, Sherwood's philosophy is still true today: "Design audio gear that offers only the highest levels of performance and make it yourself". Some people online are confused about the relationship and say Sherwood buys from Etronics (Sherwood IS Etronics). Or they say Sherwood buys from competing OEM Eastech of Taiwan (probably just mixing up Etronics and Eastech). And as a final note, apparently the Rotel development group is staffed by several ex-Inkel engineers and is also in Korea.

More links

• Etronics page for the P-965 except the picture shown is the R-965, the P-965 with a built-in amp.
• Some Etronics company info
• Some Sherwood company info
• A thread on the AVS forum where Sherwood employee "Stereojeff" provides a lot of company and product information. Stereojeff has been very active in that forum, providing information and help on Sherwood products for years.

Craving Q10

I'm not going to use the word "addicted", but I will say Dave and Tom from my office are obsessed with Curel Firming Hand Lotion with Q10. The problem is parent company Jergens has discontinued this particular brand of cream. Dave even called Jergens and ended up talking to a woman who said her whole job was basically breaking the bad news to fans like him. Apparently no other lotions is good enough, and believe me, they've tried. It's gotten to the point where they're searching eBay for sales from other, um, "collectors", and even planning a road trip we've dubbed "Lotion Motion" to hit all the small town drug stores in Alberta for the precious last bottles.

Anyway I find the whole thing rather weird... as I'm a Neutrogena® man.

Office dogs

Dave and I declared yesterday "Bring your dog to work day" and brought in Jenka and Lucy. Good times.

CRIA study shows P2P not as bad as they've said

CRIA's Own Study Counters P2P Claims

In summary, CRIA's own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders' computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services. I've argued many of these same things, but now you don't have to take my word for it; you can take it from the record labels themselves.

Race cars, Mobsters, and Pirates

What distracted me today:

• A driver's view video from a race car on a mountain road. By the way, that's definitely not an Audi R8 as the video is titled, it's probably a Norma M20. What a ride.
• What do a totaled million dollar Ferrari, bankrupt portable game company, exaggerated California bus police force, and the Swedish Mafia of Uppsala have in common? Apparently one Stefan Eriksson. What a story.
• And the film industry continues to blame the drop in theater revenue on pirates. What a shame.

Big Hill Springs

Jenka loves going off-leash at the close by Big Hill Springs provincial park.