The Sherwood Micro/CPU-100 tuner does damn near everything else. It's the latest in microprocessor-controlled digital tuners and one of the most expensive FM tuners you can buy. What do you get for $2000? Simply put, you get an excellent piece of audio gear and one of the most fun toys of the year.

Let's get the audio part out of the way quickly. In terms of specs and performance, the CPU-100 is a winner. A scan of the spec sheet reveals sensitivity of 1.7 uV or 9.84 dBf. For 50 dB quieting, the figure reads 2.1 uV or 11.7 dBf with a normal IF bandwidth and 30 uV and 13.5 dBf with the IF band switch in a wide position. THD figures for stereo reception are nothing short of remarkable. They show 0.2% at 100 and 1,000 Hz and .25% at 6,000 Hz. With the IF band switch on wide, the figures read .15% for all three frequency check points. Signal-tonoise is listed at 75 dB for normal or wide IF in the mono position and shows a loss of only three dB (down to 72) for stereo. Capture ratio is shown at 1.0 dB for normal IF and 0.5 for wide. Alternate channel selectivity measures 80 dB for normal and 18dB for the wide setting. Stereo separation (the measure of how good the stereo effect really is) yields figures of 40dB for 100 Hz, 45 at 1,000, 35 at 10,000 and 30 from 30 to 15,000 Hz, For the wide IF position, increase the results five dB for each category. These are truly impressive statistics for any tuner.