Sherwood S-2100
Sherwood's "pace-setting" FM multiplex/AM tuner — the front end that the rest of the 1962 lineup was built around.
Overview
Sherwood sold the S-2100 as the tuner that anchored its whole stereo story. The company's own advertising called it the "pace-setting" FM multiplex/AM stereo tuner, and the pitch was straightforward: the tuner section here was the same design Sherwood stuffed into its S-8000 receiver, the tuner half of a $299.00 integrated chassis that paired it with two 32-watt amplifiers and two phono/tape preamps. Buy the S-2100 and you were getting that front end on its own, ready to feed whatever amplification you already owned.
The headline feature was the Stereo Light, a small indicator that gave instant identification of FM stations broadcasting in stereo. That sounds trivial now, but in the early multiplex era it was a genuine convenience — you didn't have to guess whether a station was actually transmitting a stereo subcarrier or just simulcasting mono. Sherwood's literature notes the light was driven by special sensing circuitry, patent pending, that prevented false triggering. The tuner also carried AM, which is why the badge reads FM Multiplex/AM rather than just FM.
Sherwood's own advertising listed the S-2100 at $199.50 under Fair Trade, or $207.00 with a walnut leatherette case, and backed it with a full-year warranty. High Fidelity (November 1962, p.144) ran the same "pace-setting" copy and the same pricing in its pages, which tells you the tuner was being pushed hard through the 1962–63 season. The S-2100 was positioned as the more capable sibling of the S-2000 II, which sold for $150.50 and offered the same tuning but without the FM stereo multiplex feature — buyers who wanted stereocast reception paid the premium for the S-2100.
What the S-2100 bought you, in Sherwood's own framing, was the tuner design that the S-8000 receiver was built around. The S-8000 combined "essentially the same circuitry" as the S-2100 tuner and the S-5500 II stereo amplifier on one compact chassis, so anyone who already had a good amplifier and only needed the radio side could buy the S-2100 and get the same front end without paying for output tubes and a second power supply. That's the classic component-system logic of the period, and Sherwood leaned into it hard.
Collectors looking at the S-2100 today are looking at a piece of Sherwood's early-sixties multiplex push — a tuner sold on the strength of its stereo indicator and its shared DNA with a well-regarded receiver. The $199.50 original price put it firmly in serious-component territory for 1962, and the walnut-leatherette option was the kind of upsell every manufacturer of the era offered. The S-2100 shows up in later classified listings alongside Sherwood's integrated amplifiers, which suggests it stayed in use among enthusiasts long after the multiplex transition was old news. As with any tube-era tuner, condition of the front end and the multiplex decoder is everything, and the fact that Sherwood built the S-2100 around the same circuitry as a receiver that sold in volume means documentation and shared-knowledge repair paths exist for the tuner section.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.