Sherwood Newcastle was showing a static display of its next-gen R-972 AVR, which will feature HDMI 1.3 and offer full decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless.

The 972 looks like it maintains Sherwood's strong emphasis on value and performance oriented features. In spite of its $1,500 price tag, the 972 will be loaded with meaningful features like full video processcing, transcoding and scaling, and automated calibration and room EQ by Audyssey. The video processing is powered by Faroudja's Cortez, and XM connect and play is thrown in just for giggles.

The R-972's onboard amplification is ratd at 100-watts per over seven channels, and will ship in August.