2. amps-preamps
  3. 1153002456

Using a 220v amplification equipment in the US

I am building a strictly 2ch system for my study- I have become very interested in the current chinese offerings as several friends in Europe have recently gone in that direction and are extremely happy with the result- particularly the excellent price/performance ratio.

Some of the equipment that has been recommended to me is not available in 110v and I am not entirely sure if performance will be compromised by using 220v units with a good adapter/converter (at least 500w)...

I was looking at a couple of interesting integrated amplifiers offered by NY Sound which in fact offer the model and/or brand I was looking at with 220v power supplies....I am matching this with a Musical Fidelity X-Ray v3 and tube buffer (110v) in terms of front end and eventually with either Harbeth or Gallo Ref3 speakers...

Would be very interested in your thoughts....
pgastone

Showing 2 responses by pgastone

pgastone OP
80 posts
 
Thank you all for you responses- I think I would rather not delve into a techician rewiring the units internally- my thought is just to use an external converter/transformer that will covert the 110v from the socket to 220v...I also do not want to have a dedicated 220v line to my study as this would be very expensive....theoretically there should not be any deterioration though there is some 10hz difference in the AC cycle...this though should not affect an amp (vs a cd player or turntable)....
As of now I can't seem to find a reason why the units' performance would be affected.....
The specific units I am looking at are the shengya a202 intergrated and the Fomix integrated...have also been researching the Jungson JA88d (which is avail at 110v but at what seems to be an overly aggressive distributor mark-up)....
pgastone OP
80 posts
 
thanks again....
and steveaudio...i see your point however having heard what some of these chinese amps can do and seen what the equivalent cost from one of the many very high quality intergrateds we have available at 110v, no, there is very little available at the same performance/price ratio.....the difference is in the 3 to 4 times order of magnitude range...a very good Class A output chinese amp comes in well under $1000...if we assume that a fairly powerful converter/transformer is all you need then frankly it makes sense...a lot of sense...
As Ngjockey correctly points out you need to make sure you get something powerful enough for the current draw....a 2000watt convertor will cost say $300...still well ahead of the game
More to discover