How to use a 120V A-220 in a 220V country?

Dear all,

I want to buy a used A-220. It's the 120V version. Can I change it to 220V? How? Thx!

Best regards,
mike

eelekim, I can not tell you much about converting your unit to 220v. I do not recall ever seeing anyone do this, but that's not to say it can't be done. I can offer up 2 possible solutions for you to consider. The 220 volt power you have can actually be split at your service panel to make 110 volts. It's not a huge deal, the biggest requirement is you will have to run a dedicated line for your 110 volt output from the panel to the location where your 110 volt gear will be plugged in. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself you can have an electrician run the line for you and the splitting of your 220 volts to change it to110 volts is easily done right at your service panel.
The other option is by far the most simple way to go about it. PS Audio has 3 different models of their powerplants which will accept 220 volts input and have 110 volt outputs by simply flipping a switch inside the bottom panel. One of my friends moved to europe for a year and he ran all of his 110 volt gear with powerplants. I do believe the three models which can do this for you are the P300, P600, and P1000. Almost all of these units have this capability, but there were a few of these models in which the voltage selector was left out so if you are going to buy one be sure to verify it has the switch. Audiogon is a great place to find decent prices on powerplants. Here is a link to a P600 on audiogon for you to look at. I hope these options might be of some help for you.


Rainman

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl? ... Plant-(vol

Actually, Mike, the 220 used overseas is NOT split at the panel; it's 220 all the way. You can get converters in many max watt configurations; I used 3000 watt model when I lived in Turkey to run all my 110 stuff.

Actually, Mike, the 220 used overseas is NOT split at the panel; it's 220 all the way. You can get converters in many max watt configurations; I used 3000 watt model when I lived in Turkey to run all my 110 stuff.

Rabbit, I did some looking and we are both right. In 220 volt source applications you can split some applications to 110v however some countries actually have 200 volts and this can not be split because it is single ended. In this case there are only two options. The first option is a balanced transformer. The second option is one of the 3 powerplant models which are capable of 200v source and the output is 110v. I am sure that both of us would rather try to find a deal on one of the powerplants that will take care of everything for us over installing the balanced transformer.

Often, they can be re-wired internally; the pics below are for an A-760x, so you should check that it can be rewired.

You'll see that the transformer primary, J6 and J7 are in parallel with J8 and J9 for 120V, but the whole thing is wired in series for 240V, also the fuse value changes.

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There it is.... Thanks Rich I knew someone with qualifications would eventually jump in and answer the original question to go along with the other options....
Now for the fun part.. Can you tell him how much you would charge him for doing the surgery?

Rainman

It's not worth shipping anywhere to have it done; shipping cost would swamp what anyone SHOULD charge for this (although back in the day, i was paid $40 per unit once to change a whole pallet of gear that had been sent to us with the wrong voltage wiring internally). It's fairly simple, unsolder two wires and reconnect in alternate locations, reduce the fuse by half; if you can't do it yourself, ANY electronics shop locally should be able to hook you up.

Thanks for all your help! RichP714's replies are particularly helpful as I believe it's beter to do without any transformers. :P

As I still haven't got the A-220, I don't know if the wires are labeled as in the diagrams. Also, please confirm if the following steps are correct or not:

1. Unsolder J8 and J9
2. Solder J9 onto the previous J8 point
3. Replace the fuse with another one with half the rating of the original one

What else should I pay attention to in order to avoid fire and abnormal operation after the surgery?

More thanks!

Best regards,
mike

On the 120V wiring:

12.5A slo blo fuse

windings in parallel wt-bk and gy-bu through J6-J7 and J8-J9

on the 240V wiring:

6.3A slo blo fuse

windings in series: J6-wt-bk-Jt-J9-gy-bu-J11

I have a question for U . I bought a Carver Duel cassette deck off of ebay. It says 120v on the back but has a 220v plug in cord on the unit. Can I just have a new 110v cord put on it? Model TD-2400