"No need to use one, as it always hampers the performance."
Everytime I see an ad for Japanese gear for sale in the US, the ad always states something like "Just use a step down transformer. Does not hamper performance and can be found cheap on ebay."
Elberoth, do you have much experience in this? I'm asking as I was looking at some Accuphase & Luxman integrated amps. Many thanks.