Amp voltage and power suppy question

[Chris V.]

Hey guys,

I am moving back to England in a month and I'll be bringing my amps with me - an Aguilar AG500 and an old Engl 850 guitar amp. At the moment, the Aguilar is set at either 220V or 230V, while the Engl is definitely set at 220V. So, when I move to England, am I going to have to get the power supplies adapted for the 240V, or will it be fine?

Thanks,
Chris

[machinehead]

Well, I can tell you that the UK voltage has been harmonised with Europe at a nominal 230V.. Check your own area with a meter though because, in practice, voltage can vary.

You should be OK though.

Frank.

[Chris V.]

[quote name='machinehead' post='575437' date='Aug 20 2009, 01:56 PM']Well, I can tell you that the UK voltage has been harmonised with Europe at a nominal 230V.. Check your own area with a meter though because, in practice, voltage can vary.

You should be OK though.

Frank.[/quote]

Great! That saves me a lot of money.

[alexclaber]

They'll be fine. Strangely although voltage has been harmonised all they've done is tweak the tolerances, so nominal 220 and 240 can now be described as nominal 230 plus or minus a bit. There's enough variation in actual voltage at the socket that 20V just doesn't matter.

Alex

[Faithless]

FFS,  just tried to turn on my Aguilar 500 at home (Mainland Europe 230V) and the input selector was set on 115V... I heard a slight buzz and now the head won't turn on..

Could it be damaged badly?

 

 

thanks

L

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

You very well could have burned out the power transformer and a lot more. If you're very lucky you might have only blown a fuse.

[VTypeV4]

Oh dear.. You might be lucky and it's just taken a fuse (internal or external) out or maybe it has some sort of protection circuitry. Worst case, it's fried the PSU and everything else..

[Faithless]

Well, its a quality D Class thing, I guess they got some sort of protection, dont they..

[Faithless]

See the pic.. Doesn't seem like the main board is fried is it... 

Ps the power input and the Voltage switch is at the top left of the board (those big blue connectors)

Edited January 12, 2018 by Faithless

[stingrayPete1977]

Why they don't make these auto voltage sensing I'll never know

[sickamps]

If its class D and looking at the picture its a switched mode (SMPSU) you will have likely fried it.  Generally these power supplies don't fuse before they pop in an incorrect voltage selection, unfortunately as the amp and power supply are on the same board it'll be a whole board change.  This kind of overload in our experiences are generally not worth component replacement as it's caused quite a bit of stress. If you have a tester check the white fuse. The main preamp board will likely be fine mind you.

[JazzBass4624]

It looks as if there is a burned transformer in the centre of the picture isn't it?

 

[Hamster]

I reckon it's cattle trucked - http://www.ampdoctor.co.uk/

 

[Faithless]

My techs are already looking into it - it all came down to one broken fuse and two transistors. 50 something quid repair.