Customer Reviews

Sharp CD-DH790N Mini Stereo Audio System

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This unit replaced a Coby unit that took a hit during a thunderstorm. I looked at several different units. One of the features I needed was a cassette as I still have many of them and of course a CD player. Based on reviews of the other brands I chose this one even though there were not reviews at the time. The other unit that was considered was the Sony. The reviews said that the power / sound was on the light side so I took a chance on this one and I am very glad I did. I like everything about it. Simple and useful features, great remote, exceptional sound quality and plenty of power. I am an old rock'n roller and am pretty particular when it's comes to my sound quality and "loudness". Everything from Jimi Hendrix, the Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, the Who to Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Pink Floyd, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pink Floyd, AC/DC and even Hawkwind all sounded good. The bass is particularly good and there is not a hint of that "treblely sound" we have all experienced over the years. In my opinion, in the area that I am using it in, the 300 watt unit might be overkill, but had I to do it over again, for $30 more I may have purchased the 300 watt unit. At the time, I was just looking to replace my Coby which was around $50.00. That just depends on how loud you like and how much "air space" you need to fill. The owner's manual is well organized and written with diagrams and illustrations. One of the neat features is you can use a USB mass storage device. I can copy my entire music library to a 32GB USB memory stick I have and not have to play the CDs. I would purchase this unit again and again...

Just bought it with half of the money earned from selling my Bose radio/CD. I'm not a big fan of Bose. It sounds muffled and almost a torture when listening to talk radio. This Sharp system sounds more realistic on talk radio and crisp, clear and rich with music - thanks to the 2-way speakers. X-base is good for rock music fans. iPod cradle is state-of-the-art, usb reader is great convenience and cassette player was another factor for my purchase. Power is moderate but hey who listens to music with the volume level up to bothering his apartment neighbors? It has better looking compared with Sharp's similar model 899 with higher power. Only disappointment is that it doesn't display the clock when power is off (it does for 3 second when press the clock key). Who wants to see the stupid flash of its functions for the rest of its machine life?

I am not an expert on audio systems, but I needed a mini stereo that looks good and sounds good. I wanted something loud which had excellent quality sound. I hate nothing more than tinny sounding music coming from cheap stereos.

I saw this one on J&R Music World for($149). It had lots of neat features that other similar priced stereo systems lacked. I was willing to take a chance on this system and was hoping the sound was going to be acceptable. When it came I was pleasantly surprised. It was a really nice looking system. When I set it up it was awesome! I like classic rock and 80's pop and dance music and all I can say is wow!! The xtra bass feature really pumps up the sound too. The preset equalizer makes it so you can make different types of music sound better.

Besides having the tape deck, a cd player, an ipod dock, remote and a usb connector, it also had another wonderful feature for my needs. I purchased a cheap Coby mp3 player and a 6 foot Belkin mini stereo audio cable and was able to connect my mp3 player to the stereo and listen to it. WOW! My mp3 songs sound great on this system. The sounds shake my house with plenty of bass and I am really having fun. It has 200 watts of power and weighs 24 pounds. It is not too big and not too small. It is just right.

The only thing I have to nitpick about is the digital display always stays on even when the system is off (displays it's features over and over), and without the remote you are in trouble. Just don't lose the remote and you will be fine.

I give this item 5 stars.

I'm very happy with this system. Great sound and I like the USB functionality. Very cool. A good value for the money.

I second all the previous reviews with just a few additional caveats to throw out there. First, this is not really a space saver as some reviewers suggest, the total space occupied is 24w x 12h x 10d, not particularly small. Second, the system plays MP3's, but does not play MP4 files, a common format used by iTunes. If you copy music files from your iTunes library to cd and they skip or freeze, check the file format. Third, this system will not shuffle USB/cd tracks, that would have been nice. Finally, the sensor for the remote, which controls everything, has a fairly narrow sensing angle, you need to be almost directly in front of it for operation. That's a bit of an issue for me as I have my unit concealed in a corner cabinet.

This is a wonderful little system. I have it set up in my billiard room and it sounds great, has great feature, especially the MP3 feature. I can listen to music of my choice for hours. Great buy

This is a great product, I am surprised that it looks and sounds even better than expected.

I was looking for a sound system which can play USB (sticks with MP3's), and there are not so many choices out there. This system does it all, has even lots of other possibilities with IPOD, CD, cassette and other connections...

I can't believe it has everything even a sleeptimer and an alarm function you could use together to fall asleep with radio and wake up with music from a CD or USB. The price is low too, and the sound is very good (for this price) - clear bass and treble.

You should be aware of course that this is a less pricier item, thus the sound is not comparable to a 1000+ dollar system, but the best you can get for this money.
Fourthermore, even if it shows xxxWatt, the max volume is great for normal loud listening in a room, but not loud enough for a huge room and it does not provide for loud club music volume if you look for that.
Don't lose the remote like others already mentioned, it can do everything while the system itself only has a few buttons.

I love this product for one of the rooms or the basement. Works great with a 16GB stick for plenty of your music. I recommend to use only 5 to 30 folders on the USB stick as you will otherwise have to skip often one by one folder to the band you would like to listen to. Yes, it can do folders and randomize or sequential.

Buy it! I love it!

I wanted a system that would play my Sansa MP3 player and this one does it with GREAT sound! I also wanted a small system but one that was good quality. This fits the bill. One other reviewer wrote that it displays the features over and over. When you turn it on it is automatically in demo mode (which displays the features) but it can be easily turned off by hitting the demo button as described in the manual. I would buy this again!

I purchased this product because I started out recording music to cassette tapes in the 70's. Just because cassette technology is now considered "yesterday," does not mean a thing to me. I feel I can be much more creative when transferring music from CD to cassette than to my computer hard drive. Knowing that cassette products and tapes are hard to come by, I purchased this produce solely because it had a cassette player. Sad to say, after eating 3 of my tapes, I've stopped using it. To be fair to the seller, they allow you 30 days to return the product. I believe the machine had eaten only one of my tapes in that time period, and I hoped it was an isolated incident. Needless to say that was not the case, and I've had to use an adapter to connect another deck to this unit in order to play my tapes on it. For many people, the CD player and IPOD dock will be plusses, but, I have no real use for these. I know that there are people out there like me who refuse to give up their priceless cassette tape collections just because trends in technology dictate what people buy these days.
So to those people I say, pass this one up! - its not worth the risk. Especially if you want to hang on to those prized tapes!

Turning off the stand by display permanently is easy for this unit (Sharp cd-dh790n). Turn off the unit. On the remote press the demo button. Done.

Now whenever you turn off the unit, the display will go completely bank.

For those that wonder why, it's because the unit by default goes in to demo mode when you "turn it off". Once you press the demo button, the unit will no longer go in to demo mode when you turn it off. This should be something that is easier to find in the instructions (especially when it it the main complaint about the unit).

Now that everyone know how to do it, the unit should not be downgraded in it's rating because of this.

btw -

Plugging in your ipod device (while it is on) and the unit is in ipod mode, could freeze your ipod device. You should always plug in the ipod while the stereo is not in ipod mode. This is because the unit has to "read" the ipod device. This happens when you change the unit from somthing else to ipod. If you freeze your ipod, remove it from the unit, then press the menu and center button for about 10 seconds. The ipod will reboot and nothing will be lost.

You should also be carefull of pulling out usb drives while the unit is in usb mode. You should change the mode before removing the drive (especially if you are in the middle of a song). This is because the unit is reading that drive and removing it in that mode could harm your drive.

If you are wondering how I would come around these observations, I have this unit and I am a Senior Systems Analyst in charge of IT research and development of a tech savy mid-sized company.

Enjoy and good luck.

Bought this to replace a 15 year old Pioneer mini-system only because the CD changer stopped recognizing CD's. Also wanted the cassette deck which is very difficult to find these days. I hesitated until I saw the price drop dramatically about a week prior to Christmas, then ordered immediately.

Set up was simple. The constant Demo display was annoying as it causes the unit to stay on. After finally reading the instructions the third day, the second or third action explained how to disable the display with a push of the remote button. (Yeah, I should have read them earlier).

Sound quality: Excellent
Power: Excellent for this size of unit
Operation: Easy but agree with other reviewer - DO NOT lose the remote as this is the only way you will be able to navigate the controls.
Size: Only slightly taller than my previous system and a bit thinner, so it fit perfectly where I wanted it to be. Speakers are also detached which was not clearly stated in the product description. I took a chance when I purchased this and was pleasantly surprised as this was a must for me.

One minor gripe: The speaker wires are not very long. I lengthened mine by splicing additional speaker wire to the existing.

Overall a great deal.