yep yep yep......Non-functioning tape deck is what kinda throws a spanner in the works.
However.....If the Line-In is available for use, there's no problem in connecting something to that, and seeing what you can get out of the speakers. Also, you'll be testing the line-in while you're at it.
As I have found on my GF-777, GF-767 and QT-90 (all Sharp) there is this little Aux / Phono switch next to the RCA sockets, and these can get very temperamental at times! I have been playing boomers before now, and have lost a channel because of this pesky little switch! :annoyed: A little jiggle sometimes gets the lost channel working again. Before now, I have honestly thought about opening these boxes and just hard-wiring the switch connections so that it is effectively bypassed. I don't use the Phono side of these switches anyway.
Also, after trying the box on Line-in, I then try the box on the radio.....As some people have experienced, you can have a naff tuner on one or all the bands, like for example, being unable to get the FM to lock-in to Stereo.
So yeah, Line-in firstly, where applicable and possible, then the radio, and if the Play button works.......The tape deck.
Oh yeah.....the choon!
Almost forgot that bit.
Er......well it varies. As an example, if I were to play something by The Prodigy on my baby Sanyo ( M7735L ) and the song has bit of a thick bassline, t can make the box sound worse than it really is, because the baby speakers cannot handle the bass. So in small boxes, I use a track that is easy on the speakers. Enya tracks are OK.
For big boxes, like the GF-777 / 767, then yeah, the prodigy can play 'No good, start the dance', and the woofers move some big air.
I would say that the song played depends on what the box can cope with.
Playing a thick-bassline song on a box that cannot handle it will make the box sound like crap.
Its worth keeping that in mind. Its not all about how loud it will go, how hard the woofers will woof, and whether the bass will blow your windows out.....there's also a more delicate side of testing a box.
Can the box be played quietly at night without a big resonant bassline rumbling through the floor?
Is that song you're playing, really getting the maximum performance out of that box?
-BoomBoxDeluxe.
you know who you are im waching you 
