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changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

andrius, modified 13 Years ago.

changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Youngling Posts: 1 Join Date: 2/25/10 Recent Posts
- hello
i own Genelecies 8040 in Europe, they work perfectly more than four years each day :)

now i've got a possibility to bring two sisters for my 8040, but they are american...

the question would be - how can i change the voltage for them softly? maybe they have an automatic changer inside? is it ok to use external transformers?

thank you very much

andrius
christophe-anet, modified 13 Years ago.

Re: changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Jedi Knight Posts: 188 Join Date: 3/23/09 Recent Posts
Hello,

Thanks for your post. The answer to your question is featured in the following FAQ of our global professional products website:

http://www.genelec.com/faq/general/main-voltages/

8000 Series Models

The 8000 Series have fixed mains supply voltages. Switchable versions are not available. The appropriate voltage model (see backpanel identification: 100V, 120V, 220V or 230V) is sold in each country depending on the local mains supply voltage.

Note: If you wish to use a monitor in a country for which it was not originally intended, we recommend the use of an external 'step-up' or 'step-down' transformer in order to supply the correct original voltage to the monitor.

Hope it is clear.
Best regards,
bennyd, modified 10 Years ago.

Re: changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Youngling Posts: 2 Join Date: 11/13/12 Recent Posts
Hello,
A follow-up question(s) to this as I have read your mains power reference document.
I now have UK (110W/~230V) 8040a monitors and am using them in the US so I need to step them up from ~120V available here. The main question I have is, I hear a faint but very present lower frequency hum that persists in both speakers even when only connected to power (audio is not even connected), should this remedy this?

Also, listening to them without a voltage converter at lower power can't damage them in any way, can it?

Last, if a voltage converter is what I need to fix this hum (which I'm almost positive is NOT a ground loop), these speakers are spec'ed at 10 Volt-Amps idle and 110VA full-out, what wattage voltage converter would cover both as a pair? 300W? 500W...? I have no idea what the power factor of these as a pair would be to calculate the required wattage with overhead without that bit of info... Thanks.
ilkka-rissanen, modified 10 Years ago.

Re: changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Yoda Posts: 2564 Join Date: 3/23/09 Recent Posts
Hi,

1) Adding a step-up transformer will cure the hum.

2) The speaker won't be damaged if you use it with lower mains voltage but it shouldn't be used that way, even at low output levels. The performance of the speaker is greatly compromised with lower than specified mains voltage.

3) Size of the transformed should be at least ~3 times the power of the speaker, meaning at least 300W per each 8040A speaker.
bennyd, modified 10 Years ago.

Re: changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Youngling Posts: 2 Join Date: 11/13/12 Recent Posts
Great, thanks for the info Ilkka!
One last thing regarding response 1), is there a brief explanation for why I hear this low hum while the speakers are electrically under driven in terms of wall-power?
Just curious...
ilkka-rissanen, modified 10 Years ago.

Re: changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Yoda Posts: 2564 Join Date: 3/23/09 Recent Posts
It has to do with the voltage regulators inside the speaker which won't operate properly with low voltage.
100khz, modified 6 Years ago.

Re: changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Youngling Posts: 5 Join Date: 9/13/14 Recent Posts
correction - yes i can use, 60hz compatible found out.

will american step up convertor doing 220v at 60hz work with 8000 series genelecs?
jani-oksanen, modified 6 Years ago.

Re: changing voltage for 8040 from 120V to 220V

Jedi Master Posts: 449 Join Date: 3/30/17 Recent Posts
Hi,

Our monitors works with both 50Hz and 60Hz.