I have a much-loved vaccuum tube hi-fi system (a Kreisler) in Australia that I want to bring to Taiwan, along with my collection of vinyl.
My question is would there be any problem it if I plugged it into a 220V socket here (given that it was designed for a 240V)? The frequency in Australia is 50 Hz.
Just checking.
The 220V in Taiwan is not the same, so I wouldn’t recommend it. A friend of mine bought some electrical appliances in Australia and plugged them in to the 220V here and they burnt out, as in fried, dead, so I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.
220v in Taiwan is two opposed single phases of 110 V each, so you’d be totally frying your Kreisler.
Build or buy yourself a voltage doubling transformer to go from single phase 110v to 220 v peak to peak and you’d be fine. I found the parts to build one @1000 W with power indicator, switches, surge protection and overload cutout for about $50 at Guang Hua market… or just get a naked transformer for about $30.
You’d be better off storing your vinyl in Australia as in Taiwan the hot humid weather is likely to warp the plastic or rot the sleeves and corrode your valve sockets.
What do you mean? 
Rare as it is, i don’t agree… as regards the device itself, 220V ac is 220V ac, regardless whether it is delivered via one wire against ground or two wires that each deliver 110V ac against ground but 180 degrees out of phase. So in theory there should be no problem (and a typical tube amp does not suffer if it is operated at 8% under voltage) but there COULD be safety problems, related to what is considered “ground”, depending on how the device is built - although without a circuit diagram or direct inspection it is impossible to tell… There COULD also be problems if a transformer designed for 50Hz is fed from a 60Hz supply, so i would be hesitant to bring non-matching equipment into the country. (EDIT: In some cases, increasing the frequency makes up for a drop in voltage, but that depends on several factors, all of which are unknown in the case under discussion.)
That’s a different set of problems, and if the stuff is valuable and supposed to last i wouldn’t bring it into this climate zone…
As a cost saving measure, most devices that are built in china have some sort of label saying they are compatible between 110-240v at 50-60Hz, you just need to read the power specifications for the device. I have successfully plugged in the following devices from australia in Taiwan.
But like the previous posters said, I wouldn’t bring it to taiwan if it was precious or valuable. If you cant live without the device and absolutely must bring it and it is old enough that it is not compatible with a Taiwan power supply, I would convert it myself. You may be able to find an electronics repair shop that would do it.
Mate, it’s a valuable piece of gear. The electrical installations and household wiring in Taiwan are dodgy at best, downright dangerous at worst (no earth, crossed poles, random wires twisted together, nobody here uses chocolate blocks or BP connectors, naked ends just tucked away under the edge of the fitting, etc. etc.). You take your own chances!
True for modern semiconductor-based IT equipment and such, but tube amplifiers are from a different world.
I’d agree with yuli on this one. If you’ve had stuff burn out, it’s more likely to be the frequency difference (saturating transformer) than the voltage - which is 220V from an aircon socket. Whether phase-phase or phase-neutral is irrelevant from the appliance’s point of view. There aren’t “different sorts of volts”.
OTOH I also agree with the patriotic thrupenny bits. Taiwan’s attitude to electrics is third-world level (the phrase ‘水電’ is a dead giveaway - since when was plumbing and electric installation the same thing?). If your building electrics are OK, it ought to work - just put your hand on the transformer and see if it gets unusually warm after a few minutes, switching the power off first obviously - but if your toy is irreplaceable, don’t risk it. And yeah, the humidity is likely to make it go all grotty inside, unless you keep it running regularly.
What do you mean?
Rare as it is, I don’t agree… as regards the device itself, 220V ac is 220V ac, regardless whether it is delivered via one wire against ground or two wires that each deliver 110V ac against ground but 180 degrees out of phase. So in theory there should be no problem (and a typical tube amp does not suffer if it is operated at 8% under voltage) but there COULD be safety problems, related to what is considered “ground”, depending on how the device is built - although without a circuit diagram or direct inspection it is impossible to tell… There COULD also be problems if a transformer designed for 50Hz is fed from a 60Hz supply, so I would be hesitant to bring non-matching equipment into the country. (EDIT: In some cases, increasing the frequency makes up for a drop in voltage, but that depends on several factors, all of which are unknown in the case under discussion.)
That’s a different set of problems, and if the stuff is valuable and supposed to last I wouldn’t bring it into this climate zone…[/quote]
For anyone who really cares about frequency issues, this is what’s happening: Lower frequency (as in 50 Hz) means more time for the magnetic field to build in the transformer before the reversing current direction causes the field to collapse (which induces voltage in the secondary coil.) Consequently, 50 Hz transformers require MORE iron in the core because if there isn’t enough, the core will saturate before the input reverses. Saturation limits the output voltage to something less than the ratio of the input and output windings.
To make a long story short: if the transformer works at 50 Hz, it will work just fine at 60 Hz. But the reverse is NOT true. (Saturation has some useful functions and can be used to build constant voltage transformers.)
True for modern semiconductor-based IT equipment and such, but tube amplifiers are from a different world. [/quote]
China creates some really interesting labels: I have one transformer that says it’s input is 12V DC and its output is 2A. I especially enjoy that one.
That’s exactly what i was thinking of when i suggested that (conversely) running a 50Hz transformer at 60Hz can under some circumstances increase the output voltage a little bit (and thus counteract the slight loss one would incur feeding a device designed for 240V with only 220V). The reason is that in order to save money many companies put the smallest possible transformer into a device, so that a small amount of saturation is not uncommon under a heavier load - running that transformer then at 60Hz makes it therefore work better…
Anyway, i’m glad to know i’m not the only electricity nerd here.
As long as no clocks are involved it will be OK I guess. Motors will run faster. But than in most electronics there are clocks everywhere. IC clock speed problem?
Thanks for the input, guys. There seem to be sufficient doubts about safety and humidity, not to mention the potential damage to the equipment itself, for me to leave it where it is in Oz.
As an aside, I wonder whether vaccuum tube amplification really does sound different, or whether it’s just people’s imagination. To me it sounds kind and warm and fuzzy. But I wonder how many blindfolded people (myself included) could actually distinguish between tube amplification and solid state amplification?
At the board level, IC circuits run on DC power and clocks are typically referenced either from a quartz crystal or any circuit that generates a square wave or pulse train based on the resonant frequency of circuit containing a dedicated timer chip, such as the ubiquitous 555, or a simpler circuit with a LC or RLC + transistor combo. So, no, the wall AC frequency will not effect the clock unless it damages the rectifier or some other component of the power supply, in which case it would stop the device. In circuits where precision is not key (or in badly designed circuits) varying temperate and humidity will effect the clock rate, but the wall power should have no effect since it is effectively decoupled from the circuit by the power supply.
Whatever non-linearities and harmonic distortion a tube amp has can be reproduced to indiscernable accuracy digitally, so one can say, they are exactly the same. My signals professor in college used to swear he could hear the difference, but he was old and could hardly hear us… I think he just liked looking at the tubes glow.
Wot he said. Pre-DSP, there might have been some merit in the argument that valve amps sound different. These days, you can tailor the frequency response of a solid-state amp in the most minute detail just by adding a $10 DSP to the front end.
Personally, I think valve amps DO sound different - but my feeling is that it’s more to do with the passive components that were used in days of yore (after all, the whole point of an amplifier is to keep the active devices in their linear region). Especially the coupling transformers (and the speakers, of course), which have very complex characteristics. What those guys used to do with paper/oil capacitors, carbon film resistors, copper oxide diodes … that’s just magic. It’s amazing any of it worked at all. We’re spoilt these days.
If the OP isn’t bringing his valve amp after all, I’m sure he can buy a little box off the shelf that will deliver that valve-amp sound.
And that glow is pretty, isn’t it 
First, the following comments are on the mark:
Or, to say it more clearly, a solid state amplifier sounds like a tube amplifier (for all practical purposes) IF it is designed to sound like a tube amplifier. 
Which by no means all solid state amp are…
What both of the replies suggest is that there is intrinsically a sound difference, but with modern technology this difference can be overcome. To that extent i agree, but in practice that is obviosuly not always so - you will need to consider several parameters: a) older solid-state designs tend to sound “more different” from tube amps than newer ones, b) there are different kinds of differences , depending on the circuit topology employed, c) not only has amp topology changed over time but speaker design has perhaps more radically changed, so you also need to consider the type of speaker being employed with a given amp (a simplified - rule of thumb - explanation would be that an instrument amp is designed to work with a certain speaker, while the design of Hi-Fi amps has gone in the oppositie direction, namely “any amp can work with any speaker”), and d) certain sound differences depend on the way the equipment is used - like, is the amp being overdriven or not: e-guitar players tend to want some degree of distortion, and tube amps typically have an advantage when it comes to creating distortions that sound pleasing (this mode of operation applies to instrument amps, not Hi-Fi amps, which will typically be used in a way that introduces as little distortion as possible).
To sum it up, i’d say that when it comes to guitar amps there is definitely a market for tube amps even today (assuming they are used with a matching kind of speaker) while for Hi-Fi applications a modern solid-state design (with a matching kind of speaker) will typically outperform a tube amp.
I’ve looked for some good quality explanations on the web on that topic (there are many that are incorrect and/or confusing), and here are two articles that give you a glimpse of the complexity of the issue (nevermind that the wiki article sort of jumps back and forth between topics and could benefit from some serious editing):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_sound
lenardaudio.com/education/12_amps_8.html
(as an side on this aside: the whole article series starting at lenardaudio.com/education/12_amps_8.html is a good read)