Sherwood S-5000
Fourteen inches wide, four inches tall, and a fair-trade price of $189.50 - a Chicago integrated that asked to be judged on what it didn't do wrong.
Overview
The Sherwood S-5000 is a vacuum-tube integrated amplifier from Sherwood Electronic Laboratories. Read the model number carefully. Sherwood built it in at least two revisions, the original S-5000 and the later S-5000 II, introduced around 1960, and they are not the same amplifier with a different badge. The original carried a fair-trade price of $189.50, which shows up in Sherwood's own advertising in High Fidelity (February 1960, p.71). By the time the II arrived, the ad copy in High Fidelity (October 1961, p.140) listed it at $199.50. Ten dollars and a revision number is exactly the kind of gap that gets collectors into trouble at a swap meet.
The S-5000 is not about a headline number. It's the physical package. At 14 × 13½ × 4 inches, it's a compact tube integrated, shallow enough to sit on a shelf where a lot of period tube gear won't fit. Shipping weight ran about 29 lbs, so the chassis isn't hollow. The dimensions and weight aren't explicitly tied to a specific revision, so treat them as a general description of the family rather than a guarantee for the exact unit in front of you.
Among vintage tube amplifier collectors, the S-5000 remains a known name, valued for its Sherwood heritage and its relatively compact build. It's a recognized model, not a cult object. Nobody is paying Dynaco money for one, and nobody is pretending it's a Marantz.
Key Features
20 Watts Per Channel — With an Asterisk
The power figure for the original S-5000 is most often cited as 20 watts per channel into 8Ω, and that's the number to work from. The record carries a wrinkle, though: one period advertisement called it an "80 watt" unit. The likely explanation is that the 80-watt claim was a total-system or peak-power figure rather than a per-channel continuous rating. 1960s ad copy played fast and loose with wattage, which makes modern spec-sheet comparison nearly useless. Expect a 20 W/ch amplifier, not an 80 W/ch one.
The S-5000 II is worse documented. Its power output is variously reported as 80 watts and as 40 watts, with no authoritative figure established in the sources found so far. That's a real gap. Anyone comparing a II against the original should assume nothing about the power rating until they've seen the unit's own documentation.
7189 Output Tubes
The original model ran 7189 tubes, a subtype of the EL84 family. The EL84 clan is associated with modest power and reasonable tube availability, and the 7189 variant was built for somewhat higher plate voltages than the standard EL84. The tube complement of the S-5000 II isn't documented, so don't assume the two revisions share output tubes just because they share a name.
Presence Control
The S-5000 featured a presence control. The record doesn't specify which revision carried it, which matters if you're chasing a specific serial range. Presence controls of the era typically lifted a band in the upper midrange to bring vocals and solo instruments forward. That suited the speakers of the day, and purists who preferred their amplifiers flat argued about it.
Active/Passive RIAA in the S-5000 II
The S-5000 II's phono preamp used combined active and passive RIAA equalization. That separates a revision from a rebadge: the II's phono stage was rethought, not just relabeled. Whether it sounds better than the original's isn't answered by the record, and no reviewer or owner sound-quality quotes turned up in the research.
Selenium Rectifier
The unit contained a selenium rectifier. In a tube amplifier of this age, that's the component most likely to come up first in any restoration conversation, and it's the only failure-related part the record specifically names. Selenium rectifiers age, and their failure modes are not gentle. Anyone bringing an S-5000 up on a variac should have that part on the checklist before powering anything else.
Historical Context
Sherwood's advertising for the S-5000 leaned on a single, confident line: "only for those who want the ultimate." That phrase ran in High Fidelity (February 1960, p.71) alongside the $189.50 fair-trade price. It positions the amplifier not as a budget entry, but as a serious component for the buyer who had already decided to spend properly. The later S-5000 II carried a $199.50 price in High Fidelity (October 1961, p.140), a modest step up that tracks with the added phono-stage engineering.
Beyond the revision timeline and the two advertised prices, the historical record on this model is thin. Exact production years for the original S-5000 are not recorded, and no service manual has surfaced. The S-5000 II has at least left a schematic behind, which is more than can be said for the first version.
Collectibility & Value
The S-5000 sits in the working-collector tier rather than the investment tier. It's a known name among vintage tube amplifier collectors, valued for its Sherwood heritage and its compact build, but the market data is sparse. One eBay listing for a "RESTORED Sherwood SL-1 STEREO-LITE S-2200 S-5000" carried a $399 asking price, but the title mixes multiple model numbers, so it's not reliable evidence of what an S-5000 alone commands. An original owner's/service documentation listing for the S-5000 sat at $34.95.
One caution for shoppers: a listing for a "Sherwood S-5000 CP Stereo Cassette Deck" at $80 refers to a cassette deck, not this tube amplifier. Buyers searching by model number alone will run into it.
The existence of a schematic for the second revision indicates the model has been a candidate for restoration among hobbyists, and the selenium rectifier is the one component the record specifically flags. No confirmed spare-parts availability information turned up, and no dated current-market sales data exists in the sources. Budget for a proper going-over rather than assuming a fifty-year-old tube integrated is plug-and-play.
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Related Models
- Sherwood RX-2030R (1978)
- Sherwood RX-4010R (1978)
- Sherwood S-7900A (1979)
- Sherwood S-9500C
- Sherwood RX-1010 (1978)
- Marantz 2226 (1974-1976)
- Marantz 2226B (1979-1980)
- Marantz 2235 (1974-1977)
- Marantz 2238B (1978-1980)
- Marantz 2250B (1978-1980)