I don't know of any change in the R-772's design, but it's also worth noting that the 772 doesn't support decoding of any of the new formats (DD+, TrueHD, or DTS-HD in any of its various forms) - its HDMI audio support stops at multichannel PCM.

Ahhh...good eye gonk! I didn't catch the PCM in "Decodes DTS Master Audio HD and Dolby Tru HD PCM via HDMI". The phrase lossless audio decoding; caught me as well, from the sherwood link above.

Oh well, at least it means the CS 49700 appears to be in production.

-John

True, 49700's in the pipeline are long overdue.

I wonder if using the 49700 in this manner (no decoding of the new formats) helped with getting the receiver into production faster? After all, it means that the processing being done is purely the familiar set of formats (DD, DTS, DTS-ES, and PCM) with just multichannel PCM mixed in (and, really, multichannel PCM's been happening inside the DSP for ages now)...

Hmmm...I wonder if perhaps they put the 49500 in the R-772 instead, I believe that's the chip Emotiva is using as a prototype until the 49700 is ready. For a $7.50 chip the 49700 sure is causing a lot of grief :rolleyes:

-John

Sherwood is going with the new TI chip, and has their units in production now. The R-872 should ship in July. The R-972 which their Pre-Pro is essientially is supposed to be out by CEDIA and the Pre-Pro shortly after.

They stopped waiting for the Cirrus chips.

I don't think the R-772 uses the 49700.

Sherwood's web site still lists "Crystal" DSP's for the 772 and the 872, plus the 872 is listed as using their "SNAP" EQ software (which I was under the impression was a Cirrus-based EQ, first offered on the Sherwood 965). That suggests they stuck with Cirrus for the 872. The 972 is a pretty different beast, though (based on a few visits to the AVS thread). The Trinnov stuff sounds like it would need a lot of CPU power.

Thank you for your interest in Sherwood Newcastle. We have two
receivers whose release is imminent. Our R-872 model uses the new
Cirrus Crystal CS-49700 Audio DSP chip while our R-972 uses dual TI
DSP's. Both of these models offers a full suite of preamp outputs and
is suitable for use as a pre/pro in a high performance A/V system. We
have not announced plans for a dedicated pre/pro although we are working
on same.


Here is my reply from SN when I asked about the new 965 or 972.

SN moved to the exact same solution that Outlaw is: Dual TI DSPs.

Why? The Cirrus chips weren't available. If the 872 is using the 49700 it won't be shipping in July like they claim.

SN R-872 has been shipping as of Aug 2008. SN R-972 is now scheduled to ship in Dec 2008.

As of Sep 8, SN is dropping the P-972 -
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14618865#post14618865

Apparently, they want to concentrate on their receivers "at this time"...

Perhaps (for the time being), they are conceding the pre-pro space to Outlaw...(assuming that SN is playing an important part in the 990 replacement)