Just wondering..the best to worst,looks and sound..i have my own opinions,but would like to hear others..

Ghettoman posted:

Just wondering..the best to worst,looks and sound..i have my own opinions,but would like to hear others..

 

Sharp Worst looking and sounding, of the model's I have and or had = Sharp GF-4646 ( I have ) & GF-777 ( I have ) Both are single compartment boombox's.

Sharp Best (looks to each is a personal preference?) & best sounding of the model's "I have = Sharp GX-250" & ( GF-9494 - "had but sold") First one is a 3-piece and the 2nd one is a large single boombox

To get this started

My 5 cents: for me the best looker is WF-939/940.

Mystic Traveller posted:

My 5 cents: for me the best looker is WF-939/940.

Too many controls = too busy looking or confusing with dual auto reverse and all that

IMG_1930 Sharp WF-939 (BK) 2011 3-piece boombox

I give the Sharp GF-9696Z and the GF-9292 a thumbs up in the looks department. As for output, I would go with the GX- and HK- models.

I wish the Sharp GF-9696 or aka GF-508 would have had grills similar to the GF-9292 with-out the pull off cover that the 9696 came with.

Yeah I'm with James - The GF4646 is absolutely terrible! lol

Lousy in every respect and dreadful performance

Laughable

The Gf-515 sounds pretty lousy as well but has a very solid tape mechanism. I've spent countless hours editing tapes on this box which is its only saving grace.

I have a GF-9696Z, GF-575ZB and a GF-777Z.  The GF-9696Z/GF-575ZB both look better to me but the GF-777Z will blow them out of water sound wise when cranked.  That's my five pence/cents as they are the only three Sharps I have now.  I gave my GF-8989II to a friend which is a looker as well.  It sounded OK but the 9696Z and the 575ZB sound better.

JamesRC550 posted:

Mystic Traveller posted:

My 5 cents: for me the best looker is WF-939/940.

Too many controls 

 

Nevertheless it's awesome looking to me. Nostalgia, James.  

retro posted:

I give the Sharp GF-9696Z 

 

 

 

As for the Sharp one-piecers my favourites are GF-9494=505.

well time for me to say my bit then lol..GF9696 sounds awsom i've had one,The Gx300 is loud and proud,bad to the bone but a bit sparse for functions and gadgets..

GF999/777,sound good aslong as you replace the crap drivers,i like the sound of the GF8989,and Love the sound of my GF9500..

Poorer sounding ones are GF575E,the all silver one,the black Z model sounds better because it has loudness switch,Also been quite unimpressed with GF9000,i kind of like the sound but with 8"woofers you would think it would kick,but it sort of doesn't..yes and those 4343,4646,sound cronic,the 5454 sound slightly better but still quite poor..oh and the GF500,i love the look of these little beasts and i so want them to sound good but again,quite poor..

I've learned disappointing things about the quality of the storied Sharp GF-777z in the past several days. But I'm not sure that I'm ready to scorn it as an overrated, overpriced noisemaker. For one thing, I'm not sure that I've ever heard one. And I've certainly never handled one, seeing that I'm no full-time or committed boombox collector.  But, of the two "single compartment" boomboxes that JamesRC550 lists above as being ugly in sound and looks, I will -- ahem -- pick on the Sharp GF-4646. Here's an image of one that was sold on eBay.co.uk in July 2015:

A while ago today, having come across this topic "Sharp Boxes, Best To Worst ...," I scanned Google Images for GF-4646 views. The first few got me thinking: No wonder collectors don't much like it: it's an FM/AM-only model. But then I came across images of four-band GF-4646s (like the one above). Apparently, the four-band '4646s each come with a shortwave band and a longwave band. Granting one a chance -- from slight to minuscule -- to tune international bands. Especially with no fine-tuning knob, one sighs.

Now it's obvious that Sharp's designers and engineers were going for an entry-level, minimal-features model with this unit, but, uh, where's the tape counter? Yes, I know that latter-day jamboxes like my Sanyo M-1770K also lack a tape counter. But, in their defense -- for a moment -- I observe that they are clearly post-"Classical Age" gadgets. With the growing popularity of neater, lighter, more convenient compact discs -- and with the steadily growing presence of the Internet in the early and mid-1990s, designers saw little or no need for insisting on a tape counter in portables to index music and non-music passages in audiocassettes.

The tape deck has the familiar six buttons, but ... uh, where's the Pause switch? Crowded out by this unit having separate Stop and Eject buttons? Really?

It's a stretch to say that the GF-4646 has a relatively interesting carry handle, reminiscent of that of the pretty good-looking -- though disappointingly underpowered -- Sanyo M-4200LU that I nattered about in February. So, more to the point: did The Sharp Corporation have to try to make my skin crawl with that unsavoury-looking pair of circular, rear-cabinet vents (four slots per set of vents; eight sets of vents per circle)? Who wouldn't "thumbs down" the machine with such an optic?

(This image is also from that eBay.co.uk sale)

The eBay photo' of the rear label is a bit blurred, but it seems that this Sharp GF-4646 (a '4646L?) draws 18 watts -- or is that 15 watts? -- from the AC supply. Of course, as service-manual data found on ManualsLib.com indicate, actual power output is quite different. In fact, it's a good deal lower. I shrug to say that it usually is, regardless of the size, cost or apparent quality of radio cassette-recorder.

Another Internet find -- an August 1983 memo' sent by the "Product Service Manager" and meant for "All Authorized Sharp Service Stations" about drive-belt issues -- proves that the Sharp GF-4646 was made and marketed almost certainly several months before the eighth month of that year. That was almost certainly the year after Sharp started making decidedly higher-quality (and decidedly larger) GF-series models. One suspects that among the better 'boxes were the GF-9696z, the GF-9494, the GF-8989 and, yes, the criticized-yet-coveted GF-777z. By the way, the Sharp memo' can be found on ElektroTanya.com.

Hey, look: the Sharp GF-4646 isn't a huge, glitzy stereo. In any version, it's probably this simple 'box with all of twelve switches. Maybe it was meant for first-time, over-age-13 owners or operators of boomboxes. After all, there's no self-promoting forest of chromed, matted, knurled or etched actuators ... right?

Or maybe it was meant for kids outgrowing their six- or seven-button Snoopy thingy. After all, they only know Play, Stop, Rewind, Fast-Forward, Eject, eat some cookies, run around a bit and take a nap before waking to ...

To what? Trying to bond with that -- that skin-grumbler? Just look at that back! Would you really do that to a kid? Really?

My Sharp GX300-H can keep up with Sony FH-5 or FH-3, with no problems (same amp actually IIRC).  I think she is a looker too, not that it comes through with my crappy camera!  Pretty sensitive tuner (with FM mute and green light = tuned, red light = not tuned), dolby B & C and proper cross-overs hidden in wooden boxes.  I also like that the low frequency adjustment on the 5-band EQ is set for 63 Hz, which is lower than most boxes I've seen, and really allows to add some thump!  I put rubber surrounds on the original cones...can push air like nobody's business!!    

Sparse in the gadgetry/control section, perhaps, but the ONLY thing I would change would be to make it auto-reverse.

Not much love for the 4646 lol...I have one now because it was one I had as a teenager. Yeh it's crap but I still like it. 

I've got a few Sharp's but I always come back to the 9191...don't know why. I love this model. I'd also never part with my 9000 because with the right music on it sounds awesome. I also spent a stupid amount of hours rebuilding it lol 

Northerner posted:

Not much love for the 4646 lol...I have one now because it was one I had as a teenager. Yeh it's crap but I still like it. 

I've got a few Sharp's but I always come back to the 9191...don't know why. I love this model. I'd also never part with my 9000 because with the right music on it sounds awesome. I also spent a stupid amount of hours rebuilding it lol 

Drat I sold everything in this pic - Of this grouping I liked the Sharp GF-9000 best  

IMG_0653 5350 9000 M90 RT-1246  I even sourced a new plexi-door from Icemelon for the 9000 and then reluctantly sold it and ever since then there has not been a Sharp GF-9000 for sale anywhere only the GF-535 ... 

Not a lover of Sharp. I have most of the well known GF machines and at every price and size level they disappoint to the same degree that Crown machines delight! The one exception was when i won a GF990 on Ebay for 99p!

It was a long way away with collection only but i had a mate who passed the seller every day going to work so i got it picked up for nothing as well.

Even for that bargain price, i was prepared for it to be a bit crap but it was fully working; even the silly keyboard thing and came with original instructions etc so imagine my surprise when it actually sounded OK!

If i was to pick another Sharp that is better than you might expect it is the GF8585. The most disappointing has to be a tie between the GF555, the GF575 and the GF9000. All much less good than their parts and looks would suggest. Clearly their very creative styling people were supported by deaf engineers.

777 line wf939 gx300, don'really like the rest, the 8989 ain't bad ether, just as good as the gf9000 but in a smaller package

GWD72 posted:

My Sharp GX300-H can keep up with Sony FH-5 or FH-3, with no problems (same amp actually IIRC).  I think she is a looker too, not that it comes through with my crappy camera!  Pretty sensitive tuner (with FM mute and green light = tuned, red light = not tuned), dolby B & C and proper cross-overs hidden in wooden boxes.  I also like that the low frequency adjustment on the 5-band EQ is set for 63 Hz, which is lower than most boxes I've seen, and really allows to add some thump!  I put rubber surrounds on the original cones...can push air like nobody's business!!    

Sparse in the gadgetry/control section, perhaps, but the ONLY thing I would change would be to make it auto-reverse.

Love that Sharp mate, not seen one before