Tell me: what style of AC jack that fits into the rear panel does the Sharp GF-800H(S) come with? Is it a "figure 8"-type jack or one with a design that is partly square? If a GF-800 that I ordered gets here, I'm going to have to use an E.U.-to-U.S. adapter or replace the power cord with a new one altogether. Can anyone here please provide close-up photos of the rear-panel jack and the rear-panel plug for the Sharp GF-800? Images that I've found so far on the Internet don't seem so clear. Thanks.
Thanks for your reply, Reno. You state that Sharp GF-800s have a "figure 8" rear-panel jack and plug? That's helpful. Yes, the Sharp GF-800H(S) I hope to get has a 110V-120V/220V-240V voltage-selector switch. The seller replied to an eBay message that I sent earlier today. He (hopefully) corrected an incorrect tracking number and confirmed thus: I have to move the voltage selector into the right, 110V position because at the time of shipping the switch was in the 220V European-circuitry position. Perhaps a bit more shopping on that website is all it takes to prepare for the Sharp. But first things first. That boombox hasn't shown up yet -- and in one properly working piece (sigh) ...
Here comes the "Oops." Less than ten hours ago -- what with all the cares of family life around me, tensions with others and the like -- I suddenly realized that I hadn't done what the eBay seller of this Sharp GF-800H(S) advised that I do in a reply to an eBay message that I sent him. He advised me to adjust the voltage-selector switch from the 220V-240V position -- used all those years for the European circuitry -- to the 110V-120V setting, the voltage range of North American circuitry. In unpacking the stereo, I didn't see what seemed to be an "obvious" voltage-selector switch. (I probably didn't eagerly look.) I've used the GF-800 with the incorrect voltage setting for over twelve hours by now. I more or less hurried upstairs to my bedroom, hauled the big, still-assembled machine to my mostly cleared bedroom desk and examined the rear panel. That's when I realized what (or where) the voltage selector is and what (or where) it isn't: the voltage-selector switch of the Sharp GF-800 surrounds or "frames" the power-cord socket itself, next to the 15-volt DC socket. I took out my Kronus brand of (formerly) six small "star" screwdrivers. I used one of the green-sheathed screwdrivers -- certainly not the largest one -- and loosened the tiny screw holding what I suspected was the side-to-side-sliding voltage-selector panel with the knurled frame. I shifted the small, squared panel to the right, covering the 220V-240V etched characters. There the more appropriate 110V-120V setting was. I then re-tightened the voltage-selector screw. But is it too late? Has damage been done for using the stereo with the wrong voltage setting? The Sharp has been used for probably over fifteen hours on North America circuitry. AC voltage here in the United States is numerically half -- or a little more than half -- of the voltage typically used in Europe. I also used an E.U.-to-U.S. adapter, part of an assembled USB-to-AC "Switching Power Supply" unit that I rather conveniently found in the "Media Room" upstairs hours before the stereo was delivered. I have used that AC adapter all the time that I have operated the Sharp GF-800. (I need to; the stereo came with a round-prongs power cord, incompatible with U.S. electric sockets.) I don't think that the E.U.-to-U.S. adapter is a voltage converter; it's too small to have that sophistication and expense of design. But I still hope that it provides some measure of AC voltage protection. But is using it -- and is changing the rear-panel voltage-selector switch after the fact -- too little, too late? Perhaps more to the point, I've started to wonder if using the Sharp GF-800 on circuitry with voltage literally half of what the selector was set for is the cause of the screeching of the vintage Tchaikovsky audiocassette Sleeping Beauty - Highlights that has spoiled proper listening to the stereo. Maybe the wrong current-electricity voltage has marred the cassette-deck heads that, in turn, have marred the audiotape of the cassette, ruining the playback. But the screeching was there weeks earlier, weeks before the GF-800 arrived and perhaps when the now-returned Aiwa CS-600U was still here. Or -- this just flashed through my mind -- is it the frustrating phenomenon of audiotape "print-through"? Such a condition thwarts many a person's hopes of enjoying the aging, never-used or long-unused audiocassette copy of some single, album or compilation. I don't have the skills or tools to remedy an audiotape "print-through" problem. I suspect that tossing out the compromised cassette -- after first finding an uncompromised replacement -- is the only recourse for a non-technician non-engineer like yours truly. (Well, perhaps one can try to record the parts of the audiotape that don't seem to be afflicted, if it's rare and worthwhile audio.) And another thing: switching the voltage-selector switch to the North American setting has exposed what seems to be a power cord socket that does not have the same "figure 8" shape that Radio Raheem stated at the end of last month. Fitting the European power cord's "figure 8" rear-panel end into that noticeably different socket will be difficult -- and is likely ill-advised. But vanity drives me to pout at the thought of ditchin' the seller-supplied European cord. Its ends have intriguingly "busy" symbols and figures. Must I get rid of it and get something ... well, more generic?
Friday, February 10, 2017 (Post-2:00 PM ET Update): To further illustrate the prior message in this topic, I have taken photographs of the rear-panel knurled-frame voltage selector (the frame surrounding the socket itself being the "switch"). Before ... ... and after. This photo' was a lot harder to obtain than was the "Before" image, with me struggling with the lighting angle of the Sharper Image lamp, me struggling with the positioning of the camera-mode smartphone, etc. Oh, and there should be no great concern about the rear-panel end of the power cord fitting properly -- or at all -- in the rear-panel AC jack. Both the European receptacle and the North American (or U.S.) counterpart seem pretty much alike. In any case, I've already fit the panel end of the power cord into the 110V-120V receptacle (though it did seem like a bit of a struggle at the time), with the GF-800 working apparently just as well, with me playing the yellow-labelled Polydor International symphonic-music audiocassette for six minutes in Tape Deck 2 to be sure. The playback was timed with an inexpensive Taylor timer. No, the stereo didn't sound too fast or too slow, though at the time I did wonder if the volume was noticeably lower during playback. Uh .. did I simply forget that I turned the volume almost down to zero hours earlier while playing NPR music programming, or is there truly a voltage-mediated difference in same-setting loudness?
I'm surprised it worked but I doubt if you have done any damage. Running a 230V box off 110V is equivalent to running it off very flat batteries. Making the mistake the other way round could lead to a bang or smoke very quickly (we once did that at work with a brand new £3000 disk drive ).
I seem to have avoided a heap of woe from unwittingly running the Sharp on mathematically half the AC voltage that the stereo was set to run on, Longman. There hasn't yet been any "bang or smoke" from my room (LOL). Though, more seriously, the playback of the cassette copy of Monie Love's 1990 album Down To Earth -- listened to not long after midnight today -- did seem somewhat muffled, even with the stereo adjusted for Stateside voltage. (Though some graphic-equalizer tweaking of the GF-800 seemed to help ...)
