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Hi all, first post and already starting with problems!

I recently moved from Canada to the Czech republic going from 120v/50hz to 230v/60hz (correct me if I'm wrong on the frequencies). Regardless, I brought over my pair of event 20/20bas monitors that I simply couldn't let go hoping to get to use them here. I bought the following step up/down transformer:

http://tinyurl.com/7thjr

except at 750 watts. I'm getting a fairly noticeable buzzing from my monitors, I've tried unplugging 1 to see if there was insufficient wattage in the converter, not the problem, still buzzes. It becomes basically inaudible if there is music playing, but I still *need* to get rid of it because I just hate excess noise. I was wondering if maybe there was any kind of mid-chain solution that I could buy, or possibly some recommendations for a new converter or other options?

Thanks for any help!

Comments

anonymous Thu, 01/05/2006 - 00:38

baslotto wrote: Same problem.
I'll be moving to Italy soon and I have the same question. Do I have to buy every piece of electronics again or I can use the right transformers? How to do that?

Digi 002, KRK monitors, couple of preamps (sytek and onyx 800 so far..)

Help needed thanks anyone.

Bas

I tried to do as much research as possible before deciding to bring my monitors over here rather than sell them and buy new ones, but still ran into problems, hopefully we'll both get some answers.

anonymous Thu, 01/05/2006 - 01:55

hi guys, not shure, but i had a little similar problem not directly with the use of a voltage converter, thou... but i moved about 2 years ago from the UK to the Slovak Republic and moved all my in the UK bought gear over... so it's the same voltage (ok from to 240 to 220 a toleranz which any powersupply is layed out for anyway) but i had to rewire some of the plugs, the ones which where ICE, no problem i just bought new ones, but all the wall plugs i pluged into an UK powerbay and had to resolder the plug on those ones... i did a dodgy soldering on one of them, THE EARTH WIRE and had obviously 50 / 60 hertz humming... so maybee you should check the earth connex on your converter, if it sounds like a typical 50/60 hertz humming to you...

otherwise i don't have a clue what it could be, other then maybee a faulty wired unit.

maybee it helps

cheers

axel

p.s. dtschorn, by the way what the heck makes you moving into the czech republic from canada?? if you do it for professional reasons... speaking music, DON'T!! it's the worst place on the planet, i moved here because of private reasons, but my work has suffered so much... that i move again within this year!! i know that the chech republic is a little better, than slovakia, but basically those countries and their inhabitants are about 20 years backwards... speaking music!!, the rest of the life is rather fantastic over here...

anonymous Thu, 01/05/2006 - 02:16

Family reasons and looking for a new life/work. I have dual-citizenship, so i'm lucky enough to be able to try it out for a bit before dedicating myself. But of course, I couldn't live without my music so I brought it with me hoping that it would help out with living in a new country. Now all I have is BUZZING!!!

I'm positive that it's coming from the converter (at least, fairly positive) as it also has a dim hum that is similar to the one coming from the monitors. There needs to be some way to solve this problem, maybe I should go and as at an electronics store or something ...

anonymous Thu, 01/05/2006 - 02:45

hi dtschorn:

Family reasons and looking for a new life/work. I have dual-citizenship, so i'm lucky enough to be able to try it out for a bit before dedicating myself. But of course, I couldn't live without my music so I brought it with me hoping that it would help out with living in a new country. Now all I have is BUZZING!!

i really whish you best of luck, and an incredible amount (an unhuman amount of energy!!) to do what you believe in... you will need it, and you will understand what i say, after you have been here for a while... unless you are also a totally unprogressive "this has worked for 50 years, so it will work for another 50 years" but then start to look up to the "west" ohhh... this is great, fresh, new and cool.... now we have to do it! kinda guy and you have a mafia attitude on top of it!! (and that's serious, as soon as it is something in (any) business you do over here, on a serious level you will be confronted with the mafia, FACT!) then you will be just fine...

remember my words!! not trying to spoil your experience, or being negative... (this is something people are over here permanently!! i call it the built in depression of east europe)

just i know a good dozen of "foreigners" over here within the music bizz, and for us all it's the same... it totally sucks! and most don't mak it very long, including me about to pack up again (i will move back to my hometown Berlin, Germany this year, purely because of the situation within music over here!!!), the amount of energy you have to spend against the stupidity of people is no fun anymore...

best of luck, really!!

RemyRAD Thu, 01/05/2006 - 23:02

It sounds to me that you are using a type of electronic, solid-state voltage converter? NO GOOD! They can also damage your equipment. They clip the sinewave, to effect a voltage reduction. These will never work for you. You need to obtain an actual "step down transformer"! They make small ones that are good for 20 amps that will fit into your palm. Then you will have no problem whatsoever.

Remember, transformers are our friends!

I used this identical set up in New Zealand without any kind of a problem.

Ms. Remy Ann David

anonymous Fri, 01/06/2006 - 00:47

The thing is, I'm unsure whether those converters could deal with the amount of wattage that each of the studio monitors has (200W each). What I have now is dubbed exactly THG-750 WATT STEP UP/DOWN VOLTAGE CONVERTER/TRANSFORMER . So I'm guessing it might be what you're talking about in the end? Or am I mistaken? I'm going to head to a few electronics shops today to see if they might be able to help me out with a solution.

anonymous Mon, 02/13/2006 - 02:01

dtschorn wrote: The thing is, I'm unsure whether those converters could deal with the amount of wattage that each of the studio monitors has (200W each). What I have now is dubbed exactly THG-750 WATT STEP UP/DOWN VOLTAGE CONVERTER/TRANSFORMER . So I'm guessing it might be what you're talking about in the end? Or am I mistaken? I'm going to head to a few electronics shops today to see if they might be able to help me out with a solution.

I am bumping this because am still having the problem. To review:

1) no audio source needs to be plugged in, the buzzing/humming occurs when the monitors are plugged into the transformer.

2) I have tried to see if plugging in only 2 monitor would make a difference, it didn't. This practically rules out that the transformer does not have enough wattage.

3) After some back an forth with the Event tech support, they suggested a power conditioner in between the transformer and my monitors. Could anybody suggest one that would fit my needs?

4) This is a link to the transformer I am using:

http://bargainoffers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=154

I've been told that the little, palm in your hand ones are not meant for this kind of use.

5) I have moved from Canada (110V/60Hz) to the Czech Republic (230V/50Hz).

Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you, I CANT LIVE WITH THIS BUZZING!!!

AltheGatman Mon, 02/13/2006 - 02:45

Yea it looks to me that it is a solidstate stepup psu, as RR said, they are BAD for audio products, you end up with pretty much a square wave, not a very nice signal.

The 400 odd watts for both speakers isn't huge in the grand scheme of things, so most standard stepdown transformers should be fine.

just make sure it is a real transformer. (they tend to be heavy, and made of lots of copper wire and magnets) if it's light, don't touch it, and if the salesperson can't tell you that it is, go somewere else.

Avoid anything that is labelled "solidstate","Switchmode","Edge" or similar

Hope this helps a bit,

Al