Another surprise, it arrived. FedEx left one huge box on my porch. This thing is BIG. Dimensions are 17Wx11Dx12H. An entire foot of height! Not sure why, since it appears to be almost empty inside. I have not opened it up yet, just looked through the vents on top. It appears it could have easily been built within a cabinet resembling the little digital receivers. Perhaps Sharp was aiming this thing at the bigger is better crowd. Why else display the 150x2 power rating across the front. This actually lights up! Classless advertising at its best.
First some more external notes. I have not included pictures since it is not any different from the Ebay link already posted. I will post some once I open it up. Some negatives. Yes, the speaker connections are the dreaded spring clips, and lots of them. Not only A and B speakers, but also another set for rears. I do not have a manual, so I do not know why these exist. If that was not bad enough, not only is the power cord hard wired, so are the interconnects. Instead of RCA inputs, those throw away variety phono plugs are attached from the inside of the unit. There is also a headphone jack on the front. Pretty unusual for a power amp. One final thing, I cannot find a way to turn this thing off without unplugging. No on/off switch. At least it seems to run very cool, partly a function of a lot of internal circulation inside that big chassis.
Okay, what about the sound? First of all, some caveats. I do not own a preamp as I own a Jolida integrated what does not have pre outs. For this test I broke out my old HK 6650R integrated amp. The nice thing about this old boy is that you can convert it from an integrated to separate power and preamps with a switch. The HK is from when they built them pretty well, 100 watts but about 60 amps of current! A decent entry level solid state piece. No Krell or Classe, but no Sony either. Still, I am not sure how much using this as a preamp affects the sound.
My CDP is an AH! Tjoeb 4000 and speakers are Meadowlark Kestrel2s. Speaker wire is radio shack since my regular cables have banannas on each end.
That being said, this hulk sounds pretty good. Definately better than using the HK amps. And it does have plenty of headroom. I will listen more tonight and report back later. Hopefully Rob will have his soon and give his opinion.
Actually, I am a little disappointed it sounds good. I do not plan on keeping it simply because it is too big for the space. So anybody that is interested in a very inexpensive Sharp SX9860, send me a PM. I bought it pretty cheap because it is "cosmetically challenged."
