Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site homxb.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxb!mhuxn!mhuxm!mhuxj!houxm!homxb!hrs
From: hrs@homxb.UUCP (H.SILBIGER)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: cd question (Buying in Japan)
Message-ID: <500@homxb.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 09:39:07 EST
Article-I.D.: homxb.500
Posted: Tue Feb 12 09:39:07 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 03:58:36 EST
References: <182@npois.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 40

You should be aware that Japan has 100V rather than
the 117V which is standard in the US.
If you buy in a regular store, where it is
possible to get good discounts, you will
get domestic Japanese versions. These do not have switch selectable
voltages, and have Japanese instruction books.
The warranty is good only in Japan.

There are also "Tax-Free" Export stores. In these
stores you can buy equipment which can be operated
almost anywhere in the world. You get multilingual
instructions, and the warranty is honored outsid
of Japan.
While you can also bargain here, the prices typically
run 30-50% higher.
They actually come close to good discount prices
in the US.

I bought a turntable in Japan, a Denon DP45,
with cartridge, and paid
about $135, which is almost half what it costs here.
I bought a small transformer, 100V > 117V, for
about $ 8.
I felt that japanese equipment was reliable enough to
take a chance, and that the technology was mature.

I decided not to buy a CD player there, since the
lack of instructions and risk in my opinion
outweighed the money savings.

In Tokyo there is an area called Akahibara, which
has about a dozen electronics supermarkets, the likes
of which don't exist in the US.
There are also hundreds of parts and components
shops, sort of what the Rector and Broadway area
in lower Manhattan used to have.

Herman Silbiger, CGE