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HELP! New Tube Amp Came With Non-North American Power Cord/

SubWolfer

SubWolfer

Well-Known Member
Well I was pretty happy to get a great deal on a brand new amp, that is until I opened the box to find This Type Power Cord!

It's a Mastersound - Due Venti integrated tube amp and no, I did not pay anywhere near the price listed. The box was factory still sealed. It was listed on Audiogon for a price I just couldn't pass up. Got the original receipt and everything. Seller must have needed money I reckon. I have since contacted the seller and he said its a 110v North American version and if you look closely at the pic of the box, it does say 110v.

The Seller wrote in his email:

"you CANNOT ruin an amp with LESS than required voltage.
However, I also owned a Mastersound 300B integrated and it came with
a European cord. I just tossed it ad used one of my own cords."

So should I grab a regular power cord and power it up? If it is a 250v version I think the cycles would be different as well, will it hurt anything to try a regular power cord? Anyway I can be sure its 110v before I do this? I'm more than a little worried because its manufactured in Italy :sigh:
 
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That depends , if you know how a dual voltage power transformer should be wired .

The primaries should be in series for 220/240 , and parallel for 110/120 . Check the fuse size , the 120 volt version fuse should be twice the amperage than 240 ,if the correct fuse is in it its most likely wired correctly. A transformer made for 50HZ will work for 60HZ with no problems but not the other way around . Under voltage should do no harm .
 
I've looked everywhere on the amp and the only thing I can find is on the MALE IEC power socket, it has the following words printed on it:

Use only 250V fuse

Unfusable 250V

Its very hard to see because its imprinted on the black part of the IEC socket and is very small, but that's all I can find.

No, I don't know how a dual voltage power transformer should be wired. Also, there is no replaceable fuse that's accessible externally. And if it is a transformer made for 50HZ that will work for 60HZ with no problems, won't the sound be affected? And if it's underpowered wouldn't that affect the sound as well?
 
I think battradio means that you can test for 120 vs. 240 by plugging it in. Won't harm it, if underpowered, but will operate normally if it is correctly powered from your wall.

Similar to using a variac to start up a long-unused amp.
 
I would have it looked by someone who knows what they're doing, unless you know what you're doing (of course).
 
Something interesting I found in The Manual. It states:

To be done by the dealer:
set up the amplifier with the right impedance 4/8 ohm suitable
for the speakers and select the right main line according to country.
The above checks are to be made inside the amplifier and
shall be carried out only by qualified staff.

So would that indicate that the amp has some kind of setting internally that has to be properly adjusted that allows it to be run on our 120v 60Hz power?
 
Best send it in to check out for sure, that the transformer is wired for 120 volts, that can be changed inside the unit. If your handy at it,open the case, there may be a wiring diagram inside ,or tags on the transformer, showing the options for 120 or 240 volts.
 
No need to worry about 50Hz vs 60Hz. A transformer that can handle 50Hz will be quite happy with 60Hz. However, I am assuming that your amp is not using a switching power supply. I only see a rectangular housing over what I would guess is the power transformer, so a switcher may live there instead. But most likely they used a real power transformer, less high frequency crud to deal with.

Be careful, maybe the seller already set it to 120V operation for you. Try it on 120V, if the tubes seem to glow the usual amount of heater glow, then that would be the case. If you connect it to 240V, hopefully all that would happen is the fuse would pop.
 
Well, I gathered up the courage (thanks to you guys) to intall a standard power cord and flip the switch. :yikes:

I'm happy to report all is fine. She powered right up, tubes seem to be glowing normally and after a short warm up period I tested her out. Very nice sound, so clear yet not harsh at all. Bass is really something, tight but authoritative pronounced bass and I was really concerned that my Polk 7B's were not going to respond well to this tube amp. But the Polks handle this amp very well, or should I say, this amp takes control of the Polks and drives them very well. Mids are just beautiful. Very happy and quite a step up from my Parasound Zamp that I was using.

I attached a few pics (sorry about the pics, my camera is old) of my system. I still have some more upgrades to work on, like soon there will be a Sansui TU-717 (I just scored off the bay) taking place of the tuner you see here but I really need a better stand for all my gear. I used my printer stand for the amp because its more heavy-duty than my rack.

Thanks for all the help guys. As usual, y'all are very helpful. :thmbsp:

Mastersound3.jpg


Mastersound2.jpg


Mastersound1.jpg
 
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As I said, she seems to be running just fine but I gotsta ask...
Normal for this baby to be putting out some substantial heat? :dunno:
Class A means heat, yes? If so, wow - got me a little space heater here. Nothing to worry about?
 
Cool. I like that amp. You wrote that the manual talked about a switch, did you look for a switch? I have a Sansui SS receiver that has an internal setting to change from 220 to 110.
 
SubWolfer said:
As I said, she seems to be running just fine but I gotsta ask...
Normal for this baby to be putting out some substantial heat? :dunno:
Class A means heat, yes? If so, wow - got me a little space heater here. Nothing to worry about?
Click to expand...

Class A tubes definitely means there's some heat output. I have a Yamaha SS integrated that is switchable to run in Class A, and it puts out some serious warmth, as well.

No worries. There would be a problem if it wasn't hot enough to leave a mark.
 
Yes, I really like my RT-20, sounds smooth yet detailed and has excellent build quality. Sounds even better now that its feeding Class A amplification. I can't answer your question about redbook, don't own any redbook CD's, am I missing something?

Not sure you noticed but that's an Oritek dac on the bottom shelf. I use it for playing FLAC files off my PC. The little silver box next to the dac is a Musiland Monitor 02 US external soundcard. The USB cable (Polestar) you see plugged into the top of the PC is plugged into the Musiland sound card, then I'm running a S/PDIF 75-ohm coaxial cable (Signal Cable) from the sound card to the dac and then RCA interconnects from the dac to one of the sets of inputs on Mastersound amp. The sound is first-class. :music:

I'm finding I really like this method for a music source and it sounds really smooth with CD type quality sound (if you have a decent dac). I could have connected it differently but I read good things about that Musiland soundcard and it matters how you extract the sound out of your PC. Basically what I'm using the soundcard for is to extract the digital signal from my PC via USB then the soundcard is converting it to S/PDIF output and that signal gets fed to the dac. I highly recommend the Musiland, however, there is another new USB/SPDIF converter out there that wasn't available when I set my system up. Its called a HiFace. I've read good things about it and no USB cable is needed.

Of course you can't always find certain artists or tracks on FLAC, so the Lexicon stays for when I want to play music that can only be found on a disc. Nice to have options. :D

luckyed said:
Cool. I like that amp. You wrote that the manual talked about a switch, did you look for a switch? I have a Sansui SS receiver that has an internal setting to change from 220 to 110.
Click to expand...

No, I never did take off the cover to see if there's a switch. I'm pretty sure there probably is, but after getting advice that it wouldn't hurt to try a standard power cord, I just decided to plug it in and give that a try. It doesn't matter now because she's running fine and sounds excellent so I figured why mess with it, turn it on and enjoy. :smoke:
 
You are right about that these things get seriously hot, I am thinking of installing a coffee pot stand above mine.

However I have never heard so much detail from a pair of Boston Acoustics A200's in the bass region as well.

You can listen to them all day long.
 
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