Step up transformer- necessary or luxury? Bonus questions for the objectivists/experts seeking clean power

[artismo]

I know engineers of electronics take into consideration voltage and amperage variations of electrical outlets of typical consumers and home users. Meaning, they engineer tolerances into devices to an extent (a device that is rated to work on US plugs at 120 volts, etc., would have tolerance to work up to a point without serious damage or degradation in performance within 10%, or so on).

That being said. Let’s say a typical noob-sumer like me, living in Japan on 100 volt and 50hz at the wall, buys US speced audio equipment (120 volt and 60hz). Will the performance degrade?

Here is an example of equipment in question:
1. SMSL SU-8 DAC
2. MD THX AAA 789 amp
3. MD CTH tube amp with Chinese LPS
4. JBL LSR305 monitors

Bonus question: line conditioners, snake oil or worthy buy?

And what about UPS that output pure sine waves?

 

[attle]

I know this is an old thread but this question seems to pop up around alot on the internet. I studied and design PCB's for living, generally IMHO if a device's power supply stage is properly designed and is operating in the IC's recommended operational voltage range then you shouldn't see any meaningful differences practically speaking. There is difference between switched supplies and Linear power supply, Linear supply are usually are a tad cleaner when operating in its smaller range( if a chip has a input range of 7v-20v and coverts that to 5v then 7v will USUALLY produce lesser noise), however we are talking above micro volt and nano volt noise.

Again its in my humble opinion that as far as power design goes engineers must have already taken mains noise in consideration and any power design worth their salt will not be affected by supply voltage and noise as long as its in their operational voltage. If they cant handle that amount of noise then i would highly doubt their actual amp design is any good.

Regarding line conditioners, I think its running 95 fuel on a car that is designed for 91. It wont break the car but doubt it will make it any faster. But if its a Isolated line conditioner then it also functions as a ground loop breaker. Another good example is people dont really shove a line conditioner in front of their PC, where in reality motherboards are very sensitive to their power supplies. UPS is pretty much a battery when the power cuts out, and should really only serve that purpose.

Again the audio world is very subjective, if people can spend 1000 bucks on a Virgin made 99.9999% pure copper cable made on mars, then you sure as hell can buy a cheap line conditioner, in the end we are all here for the fun!

 

[artismo]

Thanks for the concise answer and I’ll save my money for meaningful gear