John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

If I wire up single phase 240V outlet in the US (two hots, one ground, no neutral) - should that be ok to use with devices from the UK and Japan?

I'm slowly starting to collect synths and guitar amps from places outside the US and would prefer to skip using a cheap step-up transformer since they are bulky and noisy. If I had a Vox or Marshall from the 60's from the UK for example, would they work fine on such a system? Advice?

most US homes have 240v on 2 legs coming in, and many larger electric appliances use 240v (e.g. stoves, dryers, etc) so having a 240v circuit would be fairly straight forwards - however - the UK and JP are 50Hz not 60Hz so you should check that the equipment can operate on 60Hz (most can but some electronics don't do well on the higher frequency) or invest in a converter which will provide the 240v @ 50Hz.

Ah - I hadn't considered the impact of 50 vs 60hz! I'll have to read into that for a handful of use cases. Many of these are rectifying most/all of the power into DC, or just powering heaters from AC in the case of guitar amps.

EU is 230 V. Old German equipment, 220V. Not sure about elsewhere but here in Ireland we ground the neutral at the entry to the building......