100v,115v versus 230v

I run my amps on 230Vac.They sound better. (Improved speed and better transient response.) I also have dual voltage plugs in my audio rig. I can switch from 100Vac to 250Vac @ any time. Remember 230Vac is half the amps as 115Vac....Just try it....

Two things that two people told me over time and I present them as I heard them.

1. In the U.S.A., safety was a concern (check millercarbon’s post above). That ended up with more Amperes for the same Watt number. More Amperes is allegedly somehow more problematic if anything goes bad in houses with lots of wood in their construction. More fires. Which then, just based on observation (not any kind of statistics) seems true. Houses in the U.S.A. are probably much more wood-based than those in most of the Europe.

2. Above mentioned poster is like a broken clock. He is correct twice a day. It is that time of the day, it seems.

The only way to find out the answer to OP is to cary the same amplifier to the place with both voltages. However, once you add some step-down/up transformer in the mix, are you sure you know what is influencing what you hear? I have 110 and 220 (240?) here. My turntable has both voltages. It runs the same speed at both voltages. Ok, a little cheating. It is quartz-controlled.

Yeah, nothing I'd like more than to run 230V in this apartment... :)

Sadly almost all American outlets are 110V, with rare exceptions for large appliances.  Still, the potential is there! I mean, high voltage = less current, less voltage sag during drops.

Of course, you could also get a Sander's MagTech amp, which does a pretty good job of compensating for this.

It is becaurse you only use half the current in 220-240V hifi. Watt is watt no matter where you are. So if a amplifier is 220W it only uses 1 Amp. current in europe, but 2 Amp. in the US. So it is twice as hard on the internal of the amp. and there is more heat that needs to get away from the unit.

230V or 110V is just as dangerous. You can die from more than 51V 0,03 Amp.here in europe. Yes, someone even died from at battery 9V. He put his tung on a new battery......

I agree with you that watts are watts no matter what the voltage is. But the key thing is that in the US you guys are limited to about 1,800W out of one of your sockets, but in Europe we can get 3,000W from one.

This might make a difference to a big muscle power amp, being able to draw a lot more power out of the wall might enable it to sound better. Might.