Sherbourn 7/200a experience wanted


I am putting a HT together for a friend using a Krell HTS 7.1 and need a singlle 7ch solution.I personally also have a HTS 7.1 and have used a Sim Audio Titan(love it) but a budget factors in here.I can get a new Sherbourn for around $2200CAN and I am trying to seek some answers on these amps.Alot of info is 8-10yrs old.I was wondering:
-how is there sound(comparison)?
-problems that occured and warranty,how fast,issues,etc.?
-does the amp hum alot(transformer)?
-reliability?
thanks john
mclsound
Yes...my buddy is going to get one,he is a half volume guy so it is perfect for him.
Glad to hear you liked it...the Sherbourn amplifier is a one hell of a lot of amp for the money and sound very good...
Well,for the first time ever ,I have listened to a Sherbourn and for the money..."NOTHING WRONG HERE"
It is not a Classe ca400 but for HT and lower listening levels,It sounds great.
Thanks guys
But no problem,I have moved a Sim Audio 7ch Titan(125lbs),a Classe CA-400(125lbs) and the toughest of them all,because there is no place to grab it but under the "SHARP" fins..A Mark Levinson ML-333(140lbs of dead weight)
Mclsound, you better find someone that owes you a favor.
This amp is 115 lbs. This was like lifting my wife up 5' on
to a shelf that was the same size as the amp. My buddy is
definately holding on to this favor card until he really needs me.
You will like it very much I'm sure; Markeetaux's comments are typical of other 7/200a and 7/2100 owners I've run across. Markeetaux's comments reminded me of something I forgot to mention above namely that before I picked up the Sherbourn PT-7010 pre/proc, I was using an Arcam AVR300 receiver as a surround processor as its decoding, and other features were first rate. The AVR300 made a very well-paired front-end to the 7/2100 amp...Sherbourn packs alot of value into that footprint. Be careful when you lift the amp out of the box and put it on your rack; it's quite heavy!
I've been running a 7/2100A for five years without any issue. It's a full bodied big sounding amp. It's the only piece of equipment that won't be replaced. Two years ago I sold my Anthem pre/pro and purchased a Pioneer Elite SC-07 receiver for the new codecs. As a pre/pro the SC-07 is very good. So one day I decide to unplug the Sherbourn
and try these ICE amps that a lot of people over at AVSforum are talking about. They are 140 wpc times seven. Before Heath Ledger says "I killed the bus driver". I realised how spoiled I've become. The 7/2100A is truly a great amp, and as Zephyr pointed out, customer service is first class.
I previously owned a Sherbourn PT-7010 (surround pre/proc) and 7/2100 7-channel amplifier (the previous version of the 7/200a. As a matter of fact, the 7/200a looks identical to the 7/2100a I owned in every respect though they may have found internal ways to improve the mono-block modules, etc... I'd suggest giving Sherbourn a call.

BTW...someone has a 7/200 up for sale here with low hours at a fantastic price.

In short I was VERY happy with both the PT-7010 and the 7/2100 at that stage in my home theater usage. For the price, the 7/2100 (and PT-7010) deliver excellent levels of price, capabilities, fantastic build quality and overall return on your investment. The cabling flexibility and form factor of the 7/2100A is also of benefit in that it packs alot of power for all 7 channels playing continuously into a dynamite box. Many multi-channel amps/receivers are rated in a way that leads you to believe that all channels can deliver the rated power simultaneously but in practice, people who have measured performance have found that the numbers are misleading and in some cases incorrect. Not so wit the 7/2100 and 7/200. This 7.1 chassis can deliver the rated power when needed to all 7 channels simultaneously.

The one thing to remember is that you'll need to connect the amp to two (2) different 15-amp circuits as Sherbourn has done a very intelligent job of supplying lots of power to the unit through using a master and child dual power input scheme. Hooking both power inputs to the same 15-amp circuit is not advisable; you'll want to have two different circuits run close enough to the amp so that your power cords reach. That stated, Sherbourn puts 2 heavy duty cables in the box to help you get started. If you run speakers whose nominal impedance, they suggest that you connect the amp to two 20-amp circuits if memory serves (or at least one); I'd suggest checking the manual for details.

I found the sound quality to be very good and for the price, quite surprising. At extremely high levels, I did find the amps to get a bit grainy however you had to push the amp quite far to hear this. Overall, this is a good 7-channel amp for home theater. If your goal were reference/high-quality stereo playback I'd suggest you look elsewhere. I've heard a number of 5 and 7 channel multi-channel amps over the years and still have fond memories of the 7/2100 from Sherbourn. For musicality, I have to say to be fair that my favorite is the 5-channel amp from Classe but for overall HT uses for 7.1 I would have chosen (and did for about 2 years) the Sherbourn.

Customer service from Sherbourn is first rate. I never had a single problem with my 7/2100. I did have an issue with my PT-7010 in that it was one of the first production run units and had a digital input section that had gotten damaged in transit. In that situation, Sherbourn helped me diagnose the problem, sent me a replacement unit BEFORE I sent mine back and then took my faulty unit back when I had the time to return it once my problem was solved and I was happy.

For the money, you'll get a lot out of Sherbourn equipment and fantastic customer service on top of it. I am a bit dated in my HT trialing of equipment as I left HT about 2 years ago to go back to 2-ch only so there may be other good 7.1 all-in-one amplifier solutions out there but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find better ROI in a one-box true 7-monoblock configuration than what Sherbourn gives you.