Las
Vegas – Sherwood is coming to International
CES with its first tabletop Internet radio, second A/V receiver equipped to
stream Internet- and PC-based media,
and an A/V receiver with embedded HD Radio at a suggested retail of only $219.
The company also plans to
show its first two AVRs with HDMI 1.4 input and output.
The tabletop radio is an iPod/iPhone-docking iNet-20, due in
March at a suggested $249. It streams Rhapsody and Napster music services,
doubles as an 8-inch digital photo frame, and features alarm clock functions.
Amplification is rated at 2×10 watts. Additional det (AVR) with embedded HD
Radio is the 7×50-watt RD-7405HDR,
whose suggested retail of $219 is far below the current $999 opening price
point of an HD Radio-embedded AVR.
It’s Sherwood’s lowest priced 7.1-channel receiver and first with HD Radio. It
features digital AM and FM, display of broadcast artist and song names, and
ability to receive multicast HD2 and HD3 FM stations. Other features include 30
tuner presets, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Pro Logic IIx decoding, multisource
two-zone capability, five DSP sound fields, 192kHz/24-bit DACs on all channels,
two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output, and 50-watt-per channel output with no
more than 0.1 percent THD from
40Hz-20kHz into 6 ohms.
The company’s second networked AVR
is the $499-suggested 5.1-channel RD-7605N, joining the recently shipped
$649-suggested 7.1-channel NetBoxx. The latter’s cosmetics look less like a
traditional A/V receiver and more like a slimline Blu-ray player. Both models feature
universal plug and play and DLNA certification to simplify streaming of music,
video and photos from a networked PC or network-attached storage (NAS) device
via wired Ethernet or optional USB/Wi-Fi
adapter. The device also reproduces media stored on a USB
drive.
To stream audio and video directly from the Internet via a
networked broadband modem, the 7605N and NetBoxx incorporate Verismo Networks’s
VuNow technology, which streams video up to 720p. Accessible Internet-based
content includes Internet radio stations via the ShoutCast Internet radio
service; movies, TV programs and music videos from CinemaNow; NetFlix movies;
Hulu videos, YouTube videos and flash-format videos from popular Web sites
searched through a built-in search engine. Content also includes live streamed
TV channels from around the world and international news sites.
The 7×100-watt RD-7605N and $349.95-suggested 7×100-watt RD-7605
AV receiver will be the company’s first receivers with HDMI 1.4 support, which
adds an Ethernet channel, audio return channel, and the bandwidth to support
the 4Kx2K/24 display format with four times the resolution of 1080p. It could
potentially support future 3D standards.
The $349.99 RD-7605 AVR
offers the same features as the $499 RD-7605N but lacks its networking and
Internet streaming capabilities.
A third new AVR is
the company’s lowest priced AVR
with HDMI. The $149-suggested 5×75-watt RD-5505HS features Dolby Digital and
Dolby pro Logic II decoding, two HDMI inputs and one output, 192kHz/24-bit DACs
on all channels, and five DSP soundfield modes. Single-channel-driven output is
rated at 5×75 watts with no more than 0.7 percent THD
at 1kHz into 6 ohms.
