Every sanyo i have heard has been good. The 9990, has an amazingly powerful sound, for a small (ish) box. Bass is nice and warm.

i have a mint awia 990 but the cassetts dont work at all and for some reason its stopped woking on the left channel it was ok when i first got it! 

any ideas???

Well. The 990, is notorious for it`s cassette deck. The first one, i ever had, back in 1990, didn`t work on the left channel. Repair man, said, it was a dodgy IC.

yes the faulty channel is down to a knackered dolby I.C,common problem on these,you need to take the part number off it and find one then change it,that will sort the sound out..as for the deck,Please Please..dont try to attempt a belt change on that,you will regret it bigtime,they are ridiculously complex deck,even the most skilled tech man will struggle if they've never done one before,or if they are not famillia with that deck,i changed the belts on one and while i did it i was a bag of nerves,one false move on that gear box at the bottom and it'll be curtains for that deck,just dont touch it man,leave well alone !!