Buying a Luxman L505z from Japan

Has anybody ever used a bucking transformer to step down mains voltage?  If you’re not familiar with these, a the primary of a auxiliary low-voltage power transformer is connected to the AC line as expected, but the secondary is wired in series with one leg of the AC feed of your amplifier. An 18 volt secondary connected in this way will either drop the AC feed by 18 volts or raise it by 18 volts depending on the polarity of the secondary series connection.  Schematics are plentiful on-line and are cheap and easy to build. I have been using these on vintage tube amplifiers successfully for years to drop my 123 VAC house voltage down to 112-115 VAC as that’s what the original design of the vintage amps called for.  Don’t try to run something like a Dynaco Stereo 70 straight from your mains if you don’t want to pop a filter cap or red plate the output tubes!  These bucking transformers put out little heat when in use though I do try to match the secondary ampere rating to the current demands of the amp in use - ie, a 3 amp secondary ampere rating is good to 360 watts.

Transformers definitely have an impact on sound and performance. You don't get the original manufacturer warranty either. I am considering an Accuphase amp and did research on different options. Will definitely not go with the Japan version. Not worth it for me anyway. 

When I bought my Accuphase amp recently I had some people contact me about purchasing from some places that were much cheaper than the US retail authorized US vendors. I would ask questions about warranty and they assured me I had a warranty but when I pressed them I found out I had no Accuphase warranty at all. They were not US authorized vendors. Like others have said, you will get zero support if you buy like that. I see these EBAY sales all the time where they do the voltage conversions and try and sell you the products directly from Japan. You will get no official warranty and who knows what was done by them to convert the voltage. I did a hard pass on this. It will also impact the resale price too since the people buying these products are going to ask the same question and will require proof of where you purchased it. Just my opinion.

Unveil Sound has the L- 505z for $6,995.

115/60hz.

@edubbers 

Luxman won't honor warrantee repairs on units purchased outside the US and you'd be hard pressed to find a step-down transformer with adequate current capacity at a price that would offset what you'd save buying from Japan. Suck it up if you want it and don't cut corners!