Voltage Question

[adept777]

Guys;
Situation: Onkyo TX NR609 bought in USA is imported to Europe due to moving there this June.
Question: Do I need to buy a power conditioner with voltage regulation or a voltage transformer. I am sorry for this dumb question but what is the difference between power conditioner and voltage transformer. I mean I know what a voltage transformer is but does the power conditioner work in a smiler way?? What would you guys recommend? Thanks!

 

[TLS Guy]

Guys;
Situation: Onkyo TX NR609 bought in USA is imported to Europe due to moving there this June.
Question: Do I need to buy a power conditioner with voltage regulation or a voltage transformer. I am sorry for this dumb question but what is the difference between power conditioner and voltage transformer. I mean I know what a voltage transformer is but does the power conditioner work in a smiler way?? What would you guys recommend? Thanks!

You have a lot more to worry about other than voltage.

It is generally a bad idea to try and use AV gear across different jurisdictions.

The voltage is the easy part.

You would need a transformer, to convert from 240 volts UK, 220/230 the rest of Europe to US 110 volts.

You need a transformer that is at least 25 to 30% above the TVs power rating in watts and the VA rating, since the receiver is an inductive load.

The bigger issue is the TV system. UK and Japan use the NTSC system. The UK and a lot of European countries use PAL. France and some others use SECAM. HDMI does not convert between the three.


So that will be your biggest mess.

The next is FM radio as the US has 75 msec pre emphasis/de emphasis, and Europe has 50 msec.

My advice is to sell you current AV gear, before you leave if you are staying a long time and store it here if it is a short time.

You need to buy a receiver, TV and other AV gear for the country you are in.

Also players are region sensitive.

I have a son in the UK for two years. He is just over half way through his assignment. He did not ship any of his AV gear to the UK, it is not worth it and you will regret it if you try.

 

[adept777]

You have a lot more to worry about other than voltage.

It is generally a bad idea to try and use AV gear across different jurisdictions.

The voltage is the easy part.

You would need a transformer, to convert from 240 volts UK, 220/230 the rest of Europe to US 110 volts.

You need a transformer that is at least 25 to 30% above the TVs power rating in watts and the VA rating, since the receiver is an inductive load.

The bigger issue is the TV system. UK and Japan use the NTSC system. The UK and a lot of European countries use PAL. France and some others use SECAM. HDMI does not convert between the three.


So that will be your biggest mess.

The next is FM radio as the US has 75 msec pre emphasis/de emphasis, and Europe has 50 msec.

My advice is to sell you current AV gear, before you leave if you are staying a long time and store it here if it is a short time.

You need to buy a receiver, TV and other AV gear for the country you are in.

Also players are region sensitive.

I have a son in the UK for two years. He is just over half way through his assignment. He did not ship any of his AV gear to the UK, it is not worth it and you will regret it if you try.

Thanks very much for all the info, but all i am going to do is bring just the Onkyo TX NR609. There is already a TV, DVD player and such in UK that I will be suing with this AVR. So will i be good if i get a Step Up/Down Voltage Transformer with say 300w since the Onkyo outputs 130W. Thanks!

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks very much for all the info, but all i am going to do is bring just the Onkyo TX NR609. There is already a TV, DVD player and such in UK that I will be suing with this AVR. So will i be good if i get a Step Up/Down Voltage Transformer with say 300w since the Onkyo outputs 130W. Thanks!

No you will not be good, that TV and DVR will not work with your receiver.

Your receiver is NTSC and the TV and DVR are PAL. They do not work together at all. See the link I sent you from Tom's hardware.

You will need a PAL to NTSC converter from DVR to your receiver and a NTSC converter from your receiver to the TV.

Trust me, it will be a hassle and likely not work because of DRM issues, and be very expensive. It will be cheaper and better to buy a receiver over there.

 

[adept777]

No you will not be good, that TV and DVR will not work with your receiver.

Your receiver is NTSC and the TV and DVR are PAL. They do not work together at all. See the link I sent you from Tom's hardware.

You will need a PAL to NTSC converter from DVR to your receiver and a NTSC converter from your receiver to the TV.

Trust me, it will be a hassle and likely not work because of DRM issues, and be very expensive. It will be cheaper and better to buy a receiver over there.

Hmm.. maybe I have to look into some of the Onkyo UK models when I am there.. in the meantime gotta sell mine... phew! What a mess!! Thanks for your input though..

 

[TLS Guy]

Hmm.. maybe I have to look into some of the Onkyo UK models when I am there.. in the meantime gotta sell mine... phew! What a mess!! Thanks for your input though..

That is your best bet.

By the way, your calculations for the transformer where way too low. A receiver uses much more power than it sends to the speakers.

The processor alone will use 60 watts at least, and only about half the power goes to the speakers.

The max power consumption should be in the manual, and you need to exceed that number by 30%.

So you would have needed quite a large bulky voltage converter, plus the video converters.

Because of the TV systems, a receiver for the UK market, will not work in France, which is only 21 miles across the English Channel from Dover.

Where will you be in the UK by the way? That is where I grew up and go there often.

 

[adept777]

That is your best bet.

By the way, your calculations for the transformer where way too low. A receiver uses much more power than it sends to the speakers.

The processor alone will use 60 watts at least, and only about half the power goes to the speakers.

The max power consumption should be in the manual, and you need to exceed that number by 30%.

So you would have needed quite a large bulky voltage converter, plus the video converters.

Because of the TV systems, a receiver for the UK market, will not work in France, which is only 21 miles across the English Channel from Dover.

Where will you be in the UK by the way? That is where I grew up and go there often.

Cool! I am going to be living in Tooting. I grew up in France, so I am very aware of the system there.. lol and have traveled all over Europe including UK many many times I can't wait to get back there...lol

So, what brought you here?? If you don't mind me asking>

 

[highfigh]

You have a lot more to worry about other than voltage.

It is generally a bad idea to try and use AV gear across different jurisdictions.

The voltage is the easy part.

You would need a transformer, to convert from 240 volts UK, 220/230 the rest of Europe to US 110 volts.

You need a transformer that is at least 25 to 30% above the TVs power rating in watts and the VA rating, since the receiver is an inductive load.

The bigger issue is the TV system. UK and Japan use the NTSC system. The UK and a lot of European countries use PAL. France and some others use SECAM. HDMI does not convert between the three.


So that will be your biggest mess.

The next is FM radio as the US has 75 msec pre emphasis/de emphasis, and Europe has 50 msec.

My advice is to sell you current AV gear, before you leave if you are staying a long time and store it here if it is a short time.

You need to buy a receiver, TV and other AV gear for the country you are in.

Also players are region sensitive.

I have a son in the UK for two years. He is just over half way through his assignment. He did not ship any of his AV gear to the UK, it is not worth it and you will regret it if you try.

Is channel spacing on the AM/FM bands an issue?

 

[TLS Guy]

Is channel spacing on the AM/FM bands an issue?

FM works well. Europe has long and medium wave AM bands, so the AM set up is very different to here. I have not listened to AM in Europe since I was a young child. The BBC stations all simulcast on FM. There are some new ones I see, mainly directed at immigrants.

The British manufacturers, like Quad, Leak, Armstrong etc, stopped including an AM section back in the sixties.

FM pre emphasis is different. 50 msec Europe, 75 msec North America.

Europe is not use that dreadful iBiquity/IBOC HD digital broadcast system we are saddled with. They use DAB. This is not really adequate either, yet analog broadcasting is scheduled to cease in the UK. Australia have adopted DAB plus and seem the only ones happy with their digital broadcast system. The BBC are pushing for DAB plus, but meeting resistance as there is no backward compatibility and so it means discarding all DAB equipped radios.

Canada have just adopted a strange position, in allowing stations to choose IBOC or DAB. I suspect this is a push to phase out IBOC in Canada. It is terrible. iBiquity equipment is unreliable and should have extensive maintenance weekly according to the Broadcast engineers handbook.

Since it was adopted at out MPR station in Bemidji I have seldom had a usable signal on FM. There has been a chronic problem of bleed of the news channel onto the music channel and a host of problems.

IBOC needs shutting down.

 

[TLS Guy]

Cool! I am going to be living in Tooting. I grew up in France, so I am very aware of the system there.. lol and have traveled all over Europe including UK many many times I can't wait to get back there...lol

So, what brought you here?? If you don't mind me asking>

Sorry to have forgotten about you.

Basically socialism forced me out of the UK. As as recent medical graduate from Guys hospital/London University, I could see no future in the NHS. The total disaster it has become, was all to easy to foresee.

I grew up in the Medway towns. I was born in Chatham, but grew up in the town of Frindsbury, which is a suburb of Rochester. I could see the dry dock where Nelson's, Victory was built from my bedroom window. Chatham dockyard was on the opposite, South bank, of the River Medway.

Another ship at the Battle of the Nile, where Nelson blew up the French battleship L'Orient and was also at the Battle of Trafalgar, was HMS Belleraphone (The Billy Ruffian). Nelson decimated the French and and Spanish Fleets on a misty October day at Trafalgar Bay near Gibraltar in 1805.

HMS Belleraphon was built at Frindsbury under private contact. This ship of the line accepted the surrender of Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

In the sixties I lived in South London, first at Dulwich, then Catford. My wife was at Forrest Hill while I dated her. We lived briefly at Belvedere and then moved to a nice place at Eltham, before emigrating to Canada. More socialism and then final refuge in the USA in 1976.

So I hope you enjoy your stay in South London. Tooting is right next to Balham, of the famous Monty Python sketch, Spam, Spam and More Spam.