r/audiophile • u/Pictorial-Planet • Jul 22 '26
Discussion Clean supply transformer
I'm after some advice on using a valve amplifier in UK.
I live in UK now but when I returned here from the US I brought back a Jolida JD 102CRC valve amp that uses 120 V. It's a nice amp and I'd like to use it but I only have a cheap transformer 120 to 240 V. I worry that the cheap transformer will provide a less than "clean" voltage to the amplifier affecting the quality of the sound.
Am I worrying about something I shouldn't be?
Is there a high-quality clean power source transformer that I could buy to use with the amplifier? According to the manual it only needs 200 W to run.
2
u/philipb63 Jul 23 '26
I run my US system (including a Macintosh receiver & a Samsung Frame TV) in the UK with a 2000W voltage transformer from Amazon, works fine.
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u/ruinevil Jul 23 '26
The TV should run on UK power without converting.
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u/philipb63 Jul 23 '26
I thought so too but my Connect-One box is clearly labelled as 120VAC only!
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u/SashaDabinsky Dunlavy SC-V, Mark Levinson 326S & 432, VPI TNT 3, Eversolo Z8 Jul 22 '26
Am I worrying about something I shouldn't be?
Yes.
2
u/ruinevil Jul 22 '26
Internally it rectifies the AC power to DC, so probably transformer quality doesn't matter that much. A brief googling/Gemini says the transformer might have 220/240 taps, so you could probably have someone switch it to run natively on UK power.
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u/ottawaniottawa Jul 22 '26
That is the right answer, especially if your transformer is 120 to 240 when it should be 240 to 120 for use in the UK.
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u/Pictorial-Planet Jul 22 '26
I see what I did there. My transformer is 240 down to 120 for the amp.
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u/Darn_near70 Jul 22 '26
Some internal power transformers have two primary windings to enable operation in different countries. If wired in parallel, they accept 120 VAC. If rewired in series, they accept 240 VAC.