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Powering a Japanese Amp with a Stepdown + AC Outlet usage

popeco

popeco

New Member
Apologies if this has been covered already, I tried searching but it's a tricky query. I've been looking at some older / vintage Yamaha amps from Japan, which are 100V / 50-60 Hz. I live in the US, so I understand that to power them here I'd need a 120V > 100V stepdown transformer.

Which had me wondering, if all of your other gear (turntable, tape deck, cd player etc) are US / 120v products, would you be able to run them through a Japanese amp's switched / unswitched outlets in the rear (which would be running through the stepdown @100V)? Or would I have to keep my 120V gear separate and run them straight from my wall power? Sorry about my rudimentary understanding of power if this is a question with an obvious answer :)

Thanks for any help, the forum has been a great resource for me!
 
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You want to operate your equipment at the spec'd input rating, so yes 120V gear powered separately from your 100V gear.

Operating 120V gear at 100V is sort of creating a brown-out (sag) condition. The 120V gear will not operate at it's best and I'm sure there are possible damages
that can occur with voltage sag as can happen with voltage surge.
 
The stepdown transformer converts 120Vac mains to the required 100Vac required by the amp, ie, the amp sees 100Vac so the un/switched outlets will also be at 100Vac which will create a sag as per jhjove, so not really suitable for 120Vac equipment, so year, plug additional equipment into seperate 120Vac mains outlet.
popeco said:
I've been looking at some older / vintage Yamaha amps from Japan
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Plenty of bargins to be had on yahoo especially if you can diy/repair. The CA-1000, CA-1000iii(aka 1010) and the CA-2000 (aka 2010) are favourites however check out the yamaha seperates eg, C-80 maybe C-4 for a significant step up. I use surface shipping to keep costs down.
 
Hello
NEVER use built in switching on the back of a preamp.

That power switch will take a beating and is UnObtainium.

Once it goes your screwed.

Put amp on a power strip with surge protection.... Done!

You can also use a "Bucking Transformer" to obtain 100 VAC.

Hope that helps.

Buck
 
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