The Sherwood Newcastle R-972 A/V receiver is the most eagerly anticipated product of its kind to arrive in these parts in some time. Not because it’s the brand’s first new flagship receiver in 4 or 5 years. Not because it’s an all-new 7 x 100- watt, HDMI v1.3, Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD Master Audio-decoding design. And not because it boasts top-shelf Reon video processing. But because the R-972 is the first A/V receiver — and first affordable consumer product of any sort, from Sherwood or anybody else — to incorporate the Trinnov Optimizer.
