220 to 110 coversion - mistake?

If you go back to Fry's, to the car audio section, you'll find a product called "Dynamat" that's designed to kill vibration and dampen sound. It's expensive bought in the small kits they sell so if you're willing to wait a few days you can get generic versions of it from places like Parts Express. You apply as much of it as you can make fit inside - or outside - the case.

On a recent visit to SoCal from the UK we got a Chinese made, 200 watt transformer at Frys Electronics for $30 to run her hair straighteners (rated at 60 watts). It has an on/off switch and another for stepping up or down. Stepped up to 220 from 115, as soon as the straighteners came on it emitted a loud buzz from the vibrating case. Running the cellphone adaptor or simply switched on it made a low level hum. Now the adaptor is over here in the UK stepping the 230 down to 110 to run our Nakamichi tape deck (rated at 35 watts). The case still vibrates when it's on but with no hint of complaint like it did when stepping up for the hair iron. The tape deck performs as always. Any suggestions for what to use to internally damp the case? A block of porous rubber? It's perfectly silent when I damp it with my hand. Of some note, the fine print with the transformer says that stepping up halves the wattage rating stated on the box.

Thanks for all your responses. I could have gotten a shanlin CD player out of Hong Kong for about 25 dollars on ebay - The additional rub, besides being 220, was the shipping... almost 200 bucks. That pretty much nixed the whole idea, but at least in the future I would not be averse to the 220 set up.

Thanks again guys

Audiotumbler,

If you are in the US and just bought a 220v cd player, you will need a step-up transformer rather than a step-down.

I live in a 230v country and uses products from the US and Japan. I have several step-down transformers and these have 100v and 115v taps. Products from Japan goes into the 100v and items from US to the 115v. The step-downs come out from the power distributor which itself is a conditioner. I can't tell if the transformer have deteriorated the sound in any way.

What model is the CD player?

Best is to contact the supplier and ask if it can be converted. The vast majority of transformers I have come across allows to be wired for both 220v or 115v, so you may well not require an additional transformer.

Regards
Paul

I used an inexpensive transformer from Powerbright with a 220V mid-level CD player and couldn't hear any negative effect. I think I paid less than $30 on ebay. The smallest of them should provide more than enough juice for a CD player, http://www.powerbright.com/transformers.html. Might be worth a try before you go to something more expensive.

As Herman says, many products have wiring provisions so that they are easily reconfigured for different line voltages. Sometimes it is as easy as a switch. Also I am seeing more and more electronic equipment with low power draw (like a CDP) that will operate on any voltage within a wide range. The Behringer DEQ2496, for example, takes 85 to 250 volts, 50 or 60 Hz.

There are any number of transformers being used from the power plant to your home. Adding one more, as long as it is high quality and rated to exceed your requirements won't hurt anything. I wouldn't hesitate if the player is a good deal.

Then again, maybe it can easily be coverted internally to 220VAC and you wouldn't have to worry about it.

Its really depending on what you use for step down. I use PsaudioP300 powerplant, and absolutly better than straight 220v.