Sherwood PM-9805

Excellent Turntable. Look No Further. Thank you Sherwood – I have had this turntable a while now and it’s awesome, I highly recommend it, I seriously cannot paraise it enough. Added bonus Belt driven, with pitch control, Strobe Light, Target light, Anti-Skate and Counter Weight. Also S Shaped Manual Tone Arm. This great price turntable has all the bells and whistles of more expensive ones on the market. Sherwood make great HIFi equipment, I also have a Sherwood Amp and Speakers which are also awesome.  Show details

Does the job, and does it very well – I bought mine at JB for $199. I have been very happy with it, since it meets all the requirements, even for an audiophile. Pros: Belt Driven - uses a lighter smaller motor, making it less expensive and easier to lift. The motor is disconnected from the platter so any motor vibrations or noise won't transfer to the stylus (needle). Because the… Read more

motor is faster than a direct drive TT, it can maintain a more consistent playback speed.

Platter - very well made, solid and heavy die-cast platter. Spins spins perfectly still and silent.

S-shaped P-mount Tone Arm - This type of tone arm curves the headshell inwards slightly towards the record, positioning the stylus more parallel to the grooves in the vinyl. This reduces pressure and wear on the outer walls of the grooves, and results in better tracking. P-mount is universally compatible will modern stylus cartridges, allowing for future upgrades.

Adjustable Headshell - The headshell allows you to adjust the angle and position of your cartridge for optimal stylus tracking.

AUDIO-TECHNICA AT-3600L Stylus - The best sounding budget diamond-tipped moving magnet cartridge. Output voltage is not too low at 4.2mv. Very cheap to replace. The spherical design reduces friction in the grooves causing less wear on the vinyl.

Cartridge can be upgraded for improved sound pickup, but the original is fine.

No Built-in Preamp - This means there is less wiring from the pickup to the output terminals, and you are free to experiment with different sounding phono amps to your heart's content.

Plays most popular record formats 33 and 45RPM.

Can scratch, but since the device is light and the stylus is cheap, scratching is not really recommended.

Cons:

Doesn't play 78RPM records (gramaphone / shellac)

Mostly plastic construction.

Verdict: Excellent product for playing vinyl records, but would get something more solid for Scratching.

poor quality – I bought this turn table so I could replace my old three in one which was hooked through a powerful amplifier and out to two good quality speakers ,this old system sounds fantastic ,until I bought the Sherwood turn table to replace the three in one . so I eagerly hooked everything up switched everything on put a record on to play and it sounded so tinny and cheap I was so disappointed with the sound quality I returned it back to JB hi fi .  Show details

Great value - good quality for casual listening – I started out 40 years ago with an Acoustic Research turntable and it was fantastic (apart from some issues with the belt) but not terribly convenient so it was replaced by a Yamaha P200. After 30 years of service, that wound up with my ex-wife so what to buy on a limited budget? Well I picked up the Sherwood PM-9805 around 5 years ago and… Read more

while it doesn't have the same style and feel of an audiophile turntable is does just fine.

Great value for money and provided you don't mind a fully manual turntable. I found the tone arm easy to set up (I do have a stylus scale to ensure the weight is accurate).

It is a little convoluted in having separate on-off and start controls but the whole lot is well made and seems durable. I did upgrade the cartridge but only because I wanted sub 2 gram stylus force. The standard cartridge with a stylus force of 3.5 gram just doesn't cut if for me and I now have a load of 1.75 gram and it plays without issue.

Would I buy another - at around $230 - probably - it seems to work as well as any sub $500 turntable.

Great turntable for the money – I bought one of these Sherwood PM-9805 turntables from JB Hi-Fi for $206.00 for my daughter as it’s a “look-alike” for my forty year-old direct drive Technics SL-120 that she will inherit one day... so the Sherwood will allow her to get the hang of a fully manual hi-fi turntable in the meantime. The Sherwood is a great turntable for the price. The… Read more

description below says it’s direct drive, but it’s not, it’s a belt drive turntable. There’s nothing wrong with that, a belt drive turntable doesn’t need a hefty motor so it’s just a lighter construction but will sound just the same as a direct drive equivalent which will cost you twice as much.

Other reviewers are correct in their comments about acoustic and mechanical feedback, which is a problem with all turntables, just more so with lighter weight versions such as the Sherwood. So make sure you turntable is in mechanically isolated from your speakers and on a solid base that is not prone to vibration as you walk past etc. Also correct about the need for an amplifier with a dedicated mag cartridge (Phono) input.

If you want to improve the sound from this device, you can replace the cartridge with something a little better. I replaced the supplied entry-level Audio Technica cartridge with an old Stanton cartridge that I had, and it improved the sound quality noticeably. Anything around the $50-70 mark with an elliptical stylus will do that, and you’ve still got a turntable costing less than $275. With the replaced cartridge, it was able to track at 1.5g quite happily, showing that the tonearm is not too shabby at all. I was also quite surprised at the weight scale accuracy. After rebalancing the tonearm for the new cartridge and resetting the tracking force, I checked it with a digital gauge (accurate to one hundredth of a gram) and the corresponding mark on the tonearm weight was almost exactly the same.

It’s never going to be a top-end turntable, but put simply, there is nothing else like the Sherwood PM-9805 for the price. This is an actual hi-fi turntable that is really in the price range of the awful little suitcase-type record players out there with a 8” platter, plastic tonearm and a USB port. The next level up from the Sherwood is something that looks exactly the same with a different brand name but with a direct drive motor for around $450.00. Unless you intend to do some DJ ‘scratching’, save the extra money and buy the Sherwood, you won’t notice the difference.

Surprising – Wanted to get a vintage turntable, but was put off with some silly prices being attached. (Still looking though). As this TT is fully adjustable and not half bad Cartridge and stylus.(Obviously an update is required, but not immediately)), I decided to purchase it as a second player. Super surprised as to how good this really is. I do have it… Read more

plugged into mid range vintage gear, but the lows and highs are quite good. Does suffer from acoustic feedback(base is plastic, but a lot of TT's suffer this anyway), but easily overcome. Dont forget that you require a pre-amp. Very happy and highly recommend. So until I can find a high end vintage to tinker with, this is absolutley fine.

Best value turntable – Bought from JB Hi Fi on sale for $199. Decent build quality, height adjustable vibration damping feet. Has built in stylus pilot light, strobe and pitch adjustment. Adjustable tone arm counterweight and anti skate adjustability. Works well, sounds good. A great deal if you can get it for under retail price.  Show details

I think this turntable is a victim of competence – I bought this turntable a year ago, before reading some articles and recommendations from "experts". The turntable is very clear, very adjustable and manual as the most expensive turntable having a plate of solid aluminum, this turntable allows you to change the cartridge and needle can also be controlling the speed (Pitch Controls *- 10%) and… Read more

antiskating, the flutter and wow score -0.2 is ok. Please do not forget that many entry-level turntables are built in MDF, this has a hard plastic base, and a good metal arm and can put on an accurate balance.

You get what you pay for – I dont even know if you can say this is an "entry Level" turntable. It is super basic and belt driven. It plays records but it is only for somebody who plays the occasional record and certainly not for the aspiring DJ. But for $222, you get what you pay for and it does the trick. Inexpensive. Basic, plastic and belt driven.