Sharp CD-C690X

Here's a little anecdote about a stereo system -- a Sharp CD-C690X Mini Component System.

Surprisingly, there is little I can say about the motivation behind this music system; but I do know that I bought it for the future wife for R1499.99 at the Westgate Hi-Fi Corporation on 25-03-2000.

The system had a three-CD changer, a double cassette deck, a tuner, a timer, a remote control, a Dolby Pro Logic processor, and five speakers. It also supported two auxiliary inputs.

In hindsight, the selling price was ridiculously low for its features -- so low, in fact, that it was sold out and we had to return to the shop later that afternoon to collect a unit after I insisted they re-order more stock. And it was a pretty decent system, too: it found a home in the TV rack and provided five audio channels of oomph when it got hooked up to the DStv receiver and the video recorder -- which might explain the presence of a complementary "My Cousin Vinny" VHS on the receipt. At the time we didn't yet have (or need) a DVD player.

I even went as far as getting an extended 18 month guarantee -- a rather futile expense because, by the next year, the system had found itself emigrated to Germany and married to a DVD player. A subwoofer soon joined the family.

Operation Manual (English) | Large views: Main unit | Open CD tray | Display | Rear side with connectors

Over the years, the system gradually fell into disuse: we hardly played tapes anymore, we barely listen to radio, and the CD changer started behaving erratically. Once the attached DVD player began doing the same and was replaced by another unit, not even its great surround sound capabilities could rescue this system from becoming a neglected dust collector standing on the shelf doing nothing more than telling the time.

Large views: With speaker grilles removed | Remote control

It's September 2013. We're moving house, and this item ain't coming along.
The day after I put it up on Freecycle a couple came to collect it.

The end.