SR-8100 has arrived

[bootman]

Worst case is that you need to learn them.
I just out of curiosity would try the umc-200 ones first.
you never know.

[ilovehifi]

I'm not sure how many of these have shipped by now but it would be great to see some more feedback as to the performance and functionality of this receiver!

[witalik]

This Receivers looks really good. As well the values look promising. Our tv cabinet wont house a big height receiver so also looking for small height ones. But there is very little info on this receiver. What could be the sound described as ? Will it be able to power mij Canton GLE 490.2's. Has anyone got any figures as for how much the import and other costs will be getting it to the Netherlands ? And how big is the main power supply in the receiver ?

[geertm]

For the Netherlands as a rule of the thumb the $ price is the Euro price if you include all costs.
So the $800 SR-8100 will cost you about Euro 800 including shipping, BTW (VAT) and import duty.

[jhoff80]

I gave in last week, and just received mine today.

A few ramblings... I haven't done any heavy listening, but so far I'd say it definitely sounds better than the Denon 1909 it replaced. I think it might also be a little better than the HK AVR-3600 that died a month prior, but can't be sure. Either way, I liked the HK better than the Denon until it died (and I then had to take the Denon out of storage and hook it back up again), and the SR-8100 at least matches that in sound quality, and probably exceeds it. Way more than enough power for my (very sensitive) speakers too.

I only did a quick setup with the AutoEQ. I can't actually find my Radio Shack meter to confirm speaker levels, but it did get the distances correct. I had to slightly tweak the crossovers, changing my fronts from Large to Small / 40Hz, for example, but it was very close to what I'd have set anyway.

Feature-wise, I'm enjoying that this actually overlays the menus on the inputs. I needed the Denon in HDMI bypass for 3D content to work, and so I couldn't have that there, and I don't think the HK did that either (or at least, I had the feature disabled for some reason if it did). Bluetooth is nice, but it'll probably be rare that I use it. The balanced sub output is nice, this is the first receiver I've used with that, so I can take advantage of the XLR input on my sub amp.

Oh, and anyone waiting to see the manual when it's posted... well, it's not going to give you much information, it's worthless. It was connected to a 5.1 LPCM source, and the options it gives for sound mode are Direct, Stereo, All Stereo, etc. I wanted to look in the manual to see which would be preferred there (ie, does Stereo process it and remove rear channels.. does Direct ignore bass management, etc.) and it literally has nothing on the subject. My suspicion is that it's because they only recently started selling directly to consumers, but you're better off using the manual as scrap paper.

The rest of my system, I've got all digital sources, with a HDMI connection to a PC as the primary source, and then game consoles as the other ones. Klipsch KLF-20s in the front, a Klipsch KLF-C7 center, and 2 Klipsch KSP-S6 surrounds. The subwoofer is a SVS 16-46 CS Plus powered by a Samson S1000 amp.

Three very small nitpicks though. First of all, the speaker binding posts are backwards. By that, I mean that when looking at the back, the left speaker binding posts are on the left and the right speaker posts are on the right. But of course, that's actually the opposite of how the speakers will be in the room when you look at the front.

Second nitpick... the AutoEQ had a bug in the display. It showed the speakers' levels as a confirmation at the end, and it reversed the surrounds and fronts. (So my surround left was showing -2.0dB and the front left was showing +1.0dB). When I went into the manual speaker level settings, it had the front left at -2.0dB (which makes MUCH more sense) and the surround left at +1.0dB (likewise).

Lastly, the volume knob is digital... and yet has a dot carved into it as an indicator. The positioning of the dot is 100% meaningless, having it straight up and down could be any volume. It'd be smarter just to not have the dot on it at all.

Oh, and I have a Harmony remote as well, but don't have the time to invest into programming it until this weekend at the earliest, so I can't confirm or deny the information above.

[bootman]

Thanks for the honest review.
Shame about the manual, but unfortunately that is par for the course with Emotiva's other product lines.

[jhoff80]

So as it turns out, I did get time sooner than I expected to mess with my Harmony One. The Logitech database does not have this in their system yet.

Also, I figured as well that the UMC-200 codes would work for this. It turns out though, that despite having buttons labeled exactly the same, the codes are different.

Overall though, I'm really liking the receiver so far. A few other nice subtleties are that it locks onto a signal much faster than receivers I've had lately, and there's no loud click when I mute it either. Hopefully they pass along the codes to Logitech soon, otherwise I'll have to program each button individually (which could be a nightmare, because I've had nothing but trouble with the IR input on my Harmony One).

[pallpoul]

I received my SR-8100 with the first shipment and later received the XLR to RCA adapter for subwoofer. I am not disappointed in mine, I have to say it is very powerful and it kina grows on you, but I miss my Logitech harmony one remote, as no codes are available for it. ( when I entered Sherbourn SR-8100 on the Logitech website it showed me Marantz SR-8100).

As for functionality and performance it is acceptable, I am using my OPP BD 103. and it works just fine.
The sound programs are somewhat limited and confusing. I am using PLIIZ height but the setting does not give me a lot of options, like one of the reviewer mentioned, only stereo, all channels, and Dolby D+ . may be b/c the speakers setup showed FVH ( FRONT VERTICAL HIGHS),...makes me miss other sound program on my Pio Elite SC 37 it replaced.

The manual is useless,... You might as well follow the setup instructions ...that was disappointing.
Overall it performs well but leaves few things to be desired, at this price,... I think I'll keep it b/c of the low profile and the good powerful sound.

[jhoff80]

So, I programmed my Harmony manually, once I finally convinced it to start recognizing IR from another remote. It wasn't THAT much of a pain.

Still tweaking the delays some... I have to admit, that this is the longest power-on delay for a device that I've ever seen, but that's not that big a deal.

[jhoff80]

Okay, the power-on sequence NEEDS to be optimized. Booting it up, it flashes the version number, then a few seconds later the amp section clicks on, then a few seconds later the 12V trigger comes on, then it slowly moves the volume from 1 to whatever you last had it at, and only AFTER all that, does the unit become responsive to presses of the remote for things like changing the input.

It's bad enough that I have to set the power-on delay to literally 10 seconds to get the unit to switch inputs correctly when the volume is at 1, but what's worse is that even THAT is not reliable. If the volume is turned up, then it changes the amount of time it takes. At 30 volume, I need to set it to 15 seconds for the input change command to register.

I can deal with it taking a long time, but the problem is that it's never consistent how long it actually needs to take. I suppose I could set it to something like 25 seconds to never have an issue, but that would be ridiculous.

I don't know if it's possible to boot up faster (maybe by skipping the ridiculously slow volume ramp up, perhaps?), but at the very least it needs to respond to remote commands earlier in the sequence.

I mean, really... my smartphone boots faster than this.

(That being said, in every other aspect other than this and the few nitpicks I mentioned above, I really am loving this receiver.)

[bootman]

Contact tech support about the delay.
Curiuosto see what they say.

[geertm]

I just noticed that the SR-8100 manual is available now.

cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0172/4516/t/3/assets/sherbourn_SR-8100_user_manual.pdf?10499

[jhoff80]

Well, it's now been over a week since I emailed Sherbourn, about bugs, firmware updates, and the startup time, and nothing at all as a reply. Maybe they're hard at work on fixing these things, but it still is discouraging.

For what it's worth, I mostly reported stuff I've mentioned here, with the addition of a Bluetooth thing. Basically, when a Bluetooth-paired device wakes up or goes to sleep, the receiver pops up the OSD (this part is fine, though kind of annoying). However, the OSD never times out and goes away, it remains visible until I hit the Exit button... which just isn't tolerable.

But yeah, even just something quick saying they were investigating would be more reassuring.

I definitely get the feeling that even when they started selling these, they weren't quite ready for launch yet. But hey, in the last week they put the IR and RS-232 codes up on their site, so that's progress, I suppose.

[cwt]

Hi jhoff ;as the 8100 pre amp section is almost a clone of the 200 I wonder if under menu:settup;features you can similarly disable the osd pop up and what hopefully positive effect this has on the wifi ?

The 200 firmware anouncement has just been made so maybe the 8100 will be soon

[siggie]

I just received my 8100 and started setting it up last night. I can't comment on the sound, as I also got new speakers that need to be broken in, and I am awaiting a pair of matching surround speakers.

I did connect my iPhone via Bluetooth, and the pairing was simple and the connection is great. Much better than with a stand alone Sony Bluetooth receiver I have and much better than my friend's Bose Soundlink.

Siggie