Step down voltage for Japan to US turntable

You should buy a converter for $50 otherwise you will either burn out the motor or circuit control board after a few months - I am assuming this is a direct drive Hall motor type. table.

I speak from bitter experience. One problem is that our 120V can easily be 125V in North America, and that is just too much over a period of time. For $50 it is worth it.

Radicalsteve.. Thanks for your input. I've located a stepdown transformer and will buy it tomorrow. I assume that even with 125v comming in the transformer will only pass 100v. (Wish I'd kept the Exactpower 15a.)

Transformers don't limit the voltage, they only change it by a fixed ratio. If you buy a 120-100 then that ratio is 6-5. If you feed it 125 it will output 104.2V

Since the voltage in Japan varies as much or more than it does here I think that is acceptable.

Many times the internal transformer has multiple taps, which allow you to use it with a 120 or 220 volts mains. This should be a simple job for any decent technician and save you the hassle of yet another gadget in the system.
On the other hand, if you are buying an adapter the make sure that it is NOT an auto-transformer. It would then behave as an isolation tranformer and there are benefits to having such a gadget...

What I wonder about is the 50hz. Typically motors use the line frequency to establish rpm. Does it have a strobe light or other method of adjusting speed?

4est..it's a 50/60hz unit. I'll use a strobe, and it's adjustable.

Penny-wise and dollar -foolish!!!

Use the correct model for your county's voltage & frequency. X-former conversion represents a definite DOWNGRADE in audio performance. Manufacturers are really starting to crack down on "gray market sales", and are NOT obligated to repair units purchased in one country, to be used in another country...either under warranty or not!

Yeah, they aware of the currency exchange game, as well!

Fatparrot...I only wish Micro Seiki were still around to sell the "correct" turntable for my country. There is no "definate downgrade in audio performance" in using this in the US if its properly set up. I only want to preserve it for years of service. Since Micro Seiki is not in business now, I'm pretty sure they won't be unhappy with me for bringing this in. Not sure what your comments did to futher this thread but thanks anyway.

Rloggie, apologies...I didn't realize that the table you had is from a defunct manufacturer.

I have never likes step up or step down x-formers...or "wall-warts" for that matter.

Serus has some good advice. Also, I have seen many older tables that give operating Hz as 50/60, so that's no problem.

If you do use an x-former, I would get one rated for a minimum of twice the power consumption of the table [the 100V output rating of the x-former]. A 3-4 times power rating would be even better.

Fatparrot... Although I don't find a manual w/ spec's available on line, the B111 MS uses a motor w/ 4 watts consumtion. Seems small amt. to me. The transformer/converter I found is 150 watt. If I have this right it will be plenty. I'll double check the table's requirements and the possiblity of a 120v tap on the table's transformer.
RL