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.