| You have 10 days to return something at Service Merchandise if you
don't like it. Why not get one, A-B it with your present CD player
and decide? Also, let us know what your conclusions were, and what
you were comparing it to. I, for one, would be interested.
Dick Rosenberg
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| I was in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and bought a Sharp DX-650 there
for $99.99 (excluding sales tax). I'm using it in my office, feeding a
cheap Technics receiver and Minimus 7's speakers that I already had
here.
It's not the most rugged player I've seen, but it really doesn't seem
too bad. The drawer is rather flimsy, but it doesn't make bad noises
when it closes and spins up. It's very quiet (mechanically) while it's
playing. I'm impressed by it's access time -- about as fast as the
Sony CDP-25 (though not nearly as fast as the Sony CDP302) I have at
home. The switches are large and feel decent.
It does not have a headphone jack. I didn't mind since the receiver
does have a jack.
Other features / non-features / comments:
o "3-beam" laser.
o 20 song programming.
o The repeat key can repeat the whole disc or a programmed sequence
(one to twenty songs).
o It has Pause.
o Two speed audible cue/review. You have to push the Pause key, then
push the Up or Down key. Not very friendly, but it works.
o The display shows song and time-elapsed only; no time-remaining.
It's orange, quite dim, and doesn't view well from an angle.
o It's black and measures 16 7/8 inches width, 11 1/2 depth, 3 1/8
height.
o To be expected: a single D/A and no oversampling.
It sounds fine. (Over the Technics anyway, which is clearly the weak
link in this setup. I didn't try it on my home system.)
I have no idea what it's reliability might be. Sharp warrants it for
one year, parts and labor. I've had no problems, but I've only played
it twenty hours or so at this point. For the price, I was willing to
try it. Especially since it won't get that much use in this
application. I don't know if I'd recommend it for a primary player.
But then again, at this price, it might be worth a try.
bryan walters
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