Sherwood CD-880 CD-player
The presented Sherwood CD-880 model is part of the Newcastle series of equipment. The design of the device can be assessed as conservative. Large rectangular buttons of the main organs do not allow you to make ambiguous decisions when operating from the panel. The round buttons responsible for additional functions are grouped in two zones. Note the clear purpose of the opening button dominating the panel. One of the interesting features of this player with all the abundance of available functions is the ability to smoothly adjust the speed. The so-called Pitch control allows you to adjust the speed with a single step displayed on the display, ranging from +13 to -18 certain conventional units relative to the nominal speed. Musically, this is equivalent to a change within five semitones: a maximum of two higher or three lower. In this case, the NORM (normal speed) button on the remote control does not function, and to return to it, you need to sequentially press one of the speed control buttons. The first thing you might think of using this feature is effects from the arsenal of an actively practicing DJ. Although it is possible to offer another option for using the change in speed. If you slightly increase the speed during recording, then you can fit the last hit that breaks off at the midpoint into the limited space of the cassette.
The player is very seriously equipped for its price: a pair (! - one per channel) of 20-bit DACs from Analog Device is complemented by digital filters with 8x oversampling. However, this did not significantly affect the measuring signals, which is clearly seen from the comparison of the graphs given. And the declared values of the signal-to-noise ratio and the dynamic range do not exceed those for other models.
The organization of control on the remote, unfortunately, is far from perfect. The main functions are clamped on buttons of the same discreet size between the number buttons and the edit mode buttons. As soon as the remote is in your hand, speed and volume controls immediately fall under comfortable fingers. Adjustment of the output level for headphones and line output is not carried out electronically, as in most other players, but mechanically - the level knob on the panel turns smoothly after the command from the remote control.
Against the background of a relatively modest "background", which was born from the bowels of an organ that was not localized in space, the vocalist's voice acquired a slight originality, somewhere bordering on brightness. We associated this impression with the release of higher harmonics, to which the apparatus seems to be prone. Meticulous attention to detail is akin to the work of a watchmaker, who not only sorts through tiny gears with tweezers, but also carefully puts them in place, making the mechanism work with high precision. The player with particular enthusiasm emphasizes the echo from both hissing consonants and powerful peals of organ sounds. At the same time, the image is inherent, if using photo terminology, a high depth of field and a noticeably reduced scale. This, in turn, helped to "harmonize" the choral singing: the uneven entry of the performers pushed back into the depths was smoothed out. Maybe that's why, listening to the solo part, we imagined ourselves sitting somewhere in the far rows, where the diffuse component of the sound, due to multiple reflections, is clearly visible. Briefly: the coolness and tranquility of the church somewhere in Western Europe, but not in America.
