rinkydinkron Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I was thinking about buying a mixer from the US.Will I have power problems using it in the UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Really depends on the manufacturer. If they are a global player, they will have designed it for world-wide use; however many 'Merkins are very parochial in their outlook, so you might find that the design is for 115V only. It may be that you would only need to find an alternate PSU. If you tell us which desk, we may be able to offer more pertinent advise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo7744 Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 It all depends on the mixer. Can you give us more information about the make and model? Some may have voltage switchable power suppliers, others may be auto switching, or not at all. It might also be worth checking out if the UK distributor will honour any warrantee claims you might need to make? Jimbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 There's a fairly high chance that you will have to pay import tax and VAT, which may well make the purchase less attractive. Perhaps less important to you, it could conceivably lack the specific European safety markings that the EU ask for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biskit Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I was thinking about buying a mixer from the US.Will I have power problems using it in the UK? As others have already said, an American unit may well be designed only to operate on 115/120V rather than the UK 230/240V (or whatever voltage it is this week). It is common practice for US bands touring in the UK/Europe to bring tons of amps, keyboards etc which are all 110V and have American style plugs. They usually just have several American 4-gangs linked together, the first one in line having a yellow (110V) 16A Cee-Form, plugged into a standard building-site power tool transformer. As far as I know (others may correct me on this) this is perfectly OK as long as the gear is all PAT tested and fused appropriately. There may technically be an issue with things not being CE marked but in theory the gear should have the equivalent US safety marking I would have thought. In any case, being run off a 55V-0-55V centre-tap transformer means worst-case is a 55V hit... however I suppose anything with signal ground or chassis bonded to 'N' will cause problems! Just a case of being very careful. If a building-site transformer is a bit over-kill for just one mixer, I'm sure you can get smaller versions intended for exactly this purpose. Maplin used to (maybe still do) sell a 110V to 240V trabsformer for using UK appliances in the US, I imagine there are similar products which do the reverse. Ben. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo7744 Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Forgive me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the CE mark have to be present for a manufacturer to sell a product not for it's use within the EU? Jimbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 There are still issues with the 240/110 transformer approach... many of the cheaper ones are autotransformers and do not provide isolation between primary and secondary windings. Also, equipment mains switches should really be double pole, and there can be issues to do with earth potentials etc. - something which can perhaps be managed more easily with a guitar amp (that's miked up) rather than a mixer. Regarding CE marking, it's a European requirement (Conformité Européenne) and US export equipment should be CE marked. My thought was that it might be possible to buy a unit destined for the US internal market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rinkydinkron Posted March 9, 2008 Author Share Posted March 9, 2008 Really depends on the manufacturer. If they are a global player, they will have designed it for world-wide use; however many 'Merkins are very parochial in their outlook, so you might find that the design is for 115V only. It may be that you would only need to find an alternate PSU. If you tell us which desk, we may be able to offer more pertinent advise. It's an A&H Mix wiz 16:2. There's a fairly high chance that you will have to pay import tax and VAT, which may well make the purchase less attractive. Perhaps less important to you, it could conceivably lack the specific European safety markings that the EU ask for. Does'nt that apply only to new items from shops etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo7744 Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I took it that the mixer would be one that would be for the US market and just exported to the UK, but still subject to the UK's import tax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirch Sound Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Yep it has an alternating power supply, 100 - 240v. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I took it that the mixer would be one that would be for the US market and just exported to the UK,However we have a UK mixer, exported to USA, reimported to the UK, and still cheaper than buying here. Hmmm, are we being screwed over? I think so! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo7744 Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 That comment was in regard to it's CE marking, not price. That it was being imported by an individual for personal use, not for resale like a distributor. Sorry, should have been clearer! Yep! We're being done over big time! edit, forgot comment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 If you purchase from the US, you are still liable for import duty + VAT. People often get away with it when buying software etc., but the carriers have to pay Customs & Excise, and they will then charge you Import Tax, VAT, an admin charge (and VAT on that too!). This applies to purchases for personal use. Some small items (cameras etc.) do slip through, but a 16 channel desk might be a little more obvious! With regards to what price goods are priced at, I think it's a little more complicated than might be suggested. UK goods in the US are going to be expensive, given the exchange rate, shipping etc. The price charged will reflect a number of factors - not least the fact that it has to sell into a foreign market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 I tried to import a digital desk from the states last autumn. It was an impulsive eBay purchase, and was cheap enough that I could budget for around £500 to get it across and still be getting a real bargain. However, actually getting it over here was looking like a real nightmare. I tried several places (RockIt Cargo were very nice to deal with) but the cost was prohibitive. Even more so if you're in any kind of rush for the item. I imagine a MixWiz would be cheaper because of the size but could still be problematic. Customs have you over a barrel - there's very little room for argument with them. Marking the item as a "gift" works for things like phone chargers and CDs, but won't cut it with something like this. In the end I gave up on the idea and managed to find a local equivalent of the desk for not much more. Of course, I didn't have the carriage or customs to deal with and wasn't worrying that it would get mangled before arriving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 http://www.myus.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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