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Sherwood S 8000 IV

Oakhouse

Oakhouse

New Member
Hi there
Can someone please give me some advice.
I live in the United Kingdom and have recently purchased a Sherwood S 8000 IV receiver. It is the brown leatherette export model suitable for 50/60 cycles. I am running it with a pair of Klipsch Heresy 2 speakers. Prior to the purchase, I was running the Heresies with a Quad 405.2 upgraded to 405.3 by Net Audio and a Quad 44 preamp. I am just blown away by the sound of the Sherwood and Klipsch and am really hearing music that it is a pleasure to listen to. My listening tastes are very varied though, ranging from female accoustic and jazz singers to classical to Pink Floyd. Following its purchase, I put the Sherwood into my local radio repair shop, They were very critical when I took it in, but have changed their tone now, telling me that it is a real timewarp and fantastic.There were two dry joints, other than that everything is great. I will post some pictures at a later date. My question is tubes. I wish to purchase a spare set of tubes. At present it has Sylvania 7868 output tubes. I do not wish to go down the route of getting EH tubes due to the different pin sizes (Novar versus Magnoval). Where can I please obtain a spare set of tested output tubes preferably NIB or NOS from a tube supplier/someone that you can recommend ? also, do I need a quad set of output tubes or is two sets of matched pairs ok?
Happy to purchase from the USA/Canada or U.K.
Any other spares I should be considering purchasing for time proofing?
Apologising for my ignorance in these matters.
Your help and advice gratefully received.
Good listening
Andy
 
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Congratulations on the Sherwood S8000 IV. I had a similar experience after I restored mine--excellent tuner and wonderful sound. In stock form, there is no way to bias the tubes individually, so you will need a matched quad or at lead two well-matched pairs. Having the same 7868 tube quandary as you, I was able to obtain a matched quad of Brimar EL506 tubes (maybe the last set on earth? Never saw another EL506 available anywhere so far). These are wonderful tubes, but they also have magnoval pins, so it was a one-way trip to large-pin only for my Sherwood.

Your choices as I've seen them are limited:
-Take a chance on auction site old stock tubes if you can find them
-Buy NOS singles from a tube supplier and hope you get them matched well enough, but be prepared to pay (example: Antique Electronic Supply/Tube Depot have singles for just under $80US--no option for matching)
-Have your S8000 IV modified to allow individual output tube bias and mix and match with what you can find (I did this to mine--a bit challenging, but not impossible)
-Advertise on the audio fora to see if you can find pairs or quads (the Audiokarma route would be Barter Town 'wanted to buy'). People who have them are often reluctant to part with them, but it may be worth a try.

Otherwise, you're stuck with large pin tubes for replacements. Perhaps not so bad, as I have also used the Electro Harmonix magnoval tubes and they performed well for me.

Good luck with your search! Others may have better ideas than I.
Dave

PS Welcome to AudioKarma!
 
I have managed to come into sets of NOS, but one set I bought was so mismatched I suspect they were factory seconds or something. Even with individual bias adjustments on my S-5500II I can barely get them to idle at the same current. The other set I have actually is a pretty decent match. Once in a while you can get lucky and find them at not completely stupid prices but thats getting difficult.

My S-7000 has EH tubes and Magnoval sockets.

Sherwoods are a bit under-rated IMO. The cosmetics are not to everyone's taste but they were definitely well made and perform well.
 
gadget73 said:
I have managed to come into sets of NOS, but one set I bought was so mismatched I suspect they were factory seconds or something. Even with individual bias adjustments on my S-5500II I can barely get them to idle at the same current. The other set I have actually is a pretty decent match. Once in a while you can get lucky and find them at not completely stupid prices but thats getting difficult.

My S-7000 has EH tubes and Magnoval sockets.

Sherwoods are a bit under-rated IMO. The cosmetics are not to everyone's taste but they were definitely well made and perform well.
Click to expand...
Hello gadget73. I have been trying to find some Magnoval sockets for my Sherwood S5000II which has 1" mounting hole for the socket, but the only Magnoval sockets I have found have 27mm mounting holes with 33mm mount hole spacing. Do you remember where you found yours? AND Thank You for all of your Very helpful information you provide, and have provided for the Sherwood and Fisher tube units.
 
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I found them from some random place on ebay that happened to have 4 old US production sockets. The S-7000 originally had octal sockets at I think 1 1/4" spacing so it wasn't all that hard. 1" spacing on a socket is pretty uncommon and your choices are limited.
 
I plan to stick with the original sockets and vintage tubes in my S-8000 IV. Unless you'll be playing non-stop, the output tubes should last a long time, so I wouldn't worry. I often see amps from the 60's that still have the original tubes which still test good.

If you do plan to use it heavily, then changing to sockets for modern tubes might be a good idea. Personally, I would change to octal sockets so I can still use vintage tubes if I want to.

I've never understood why they went to the trouble of producing new 7868s, but didn't bother to use the correct size pins.
 
as a thought, you could do the opposite of what I did on the S-7000, put octal sockets in it and run 7591 tubes. Only the Tung-Sol in current production are the right physicl size though. At the time I got the 7000, those didn't exist and I was being too cheap to buy old production tubes. I think octal sockets exist in 1" spacing at least. Absolute worst case, drill bits are cheap.

Just a thought though, either way you go I'd get a spare set just in case the new production stops. You're dealing with a single-source item and that kind of thing makes me a bit nervous.

My S-5500II has original sockets and I plan to leave it that way. I've got a strong but horribly mismatched set, an NOS well matched set, and 4 good used tubes that aren't even the same brand but are a decent electrical match. Its not in regular service since I haven't even bothered to replace the filter caps yet.
 
I have three S-8000’s IV’s and a S-5500 II, all of which I dug out of a basement for about $50 a box. (AMAZINGLY, there is still another S-8000 IV down there). I have one of the 8000’s and the 5500 up and running (one of the other 8000’s is salvageable - the other is strictly parts condition only). I bought a new set of EH 7868’s a few months ago and last week i finally pried the sockets open on the 5500 and installed the EH tubes. Honestly, they didn’t sound any better than the old Sherwood marked 7868’s that were already in there (which I assume were original). SO . . . I gathered up ALL the 7868’s and ALL the 6EU7’s from these 4 units and took them to my local emporium last weekend to test them all. Of over a dozen 7868’s and dozen(s) of 6EU7’s, I found 1 bad 7868 and two bad 6EU7’s. I’m fact 7 7868’s and over 12 6eu7’s tested exceptionally well. I was flabbergasted.

So I’m using them and not worrying. Very pleased!!!

Maybe think about just using your current 7868’s.
 
Dave451 said:
Congratulations on the Sherwood S8000 IV. I had a similar experience after I restored mine--excellent tuner and wonderful sound. In stock form, there is no way to bias the tubes individually, so you will need a matched quad or at lead two well-matched pairs. Having the same 7868 tube quandary as you, I was able to obtain a matched quad of Brimar EL506 tubes (maybe the last set on earth? Never saw another EL506 available anywhere so far). These are wonderful tubes, but they also have magnoval pins, so it was a one-way trip to large-pin only for my Sherwood.

Your choices as I've seen them are limited:
-Take a chance on auction site old stock tubes if you can find them
-Buy NOS singles from a tube supplier and hope you get them matched well enough, but be prepared to pay (example: Antique Electronic Supply/Tube Depot have singles for just under $80US--no option for matching)
-Have your S8000 IV modified to allow individual output tube bias and mix and match with what you can find (I did this to mine--a bit challenging, but not impossible)
-Advertise on the audio fora to see if you can find pairs or quads (the Audiokarma route would be Barter Town 'wanted to buy'). People who have them are often reluctant to part with them, but it may be worth a try.

Otherwise, you're stuck with large pin tubes for replacements. Perhaps not so bad, as I have also used the Electro Harmonix magnoval tubes and they performed well for me.

Good luck with your search! Others may have better ideas than I.
Dave

PS Welcome to AudioKarma!
Click to expand...
Hi Dave
Thanks for your response and encouragement
Do you please have a circuit diagram showing your mods to allow individual output tube bias and a list of parts - it would be much appreciated
Good listening
Andrew
 
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