Possibly moving to ITALY Will my U.S. gear work?

Italy is 220 VAC 50 hz. Certain gear, like turntables or your motors on tape equipment might need 60 hz, with most other gear the difference in frequency will not matter. If you own high end gear, I would not buy just any step down transformers, they sometimes can limit dynamics and eject noise into your powerline. So if you've gone highend in the States, you need to invest into something like a PS Audio Powerplant 600 for your frontend gear and Equi/Techs for your amps. The PS Audio can be set internally to run at 230VAC and will gave you power at 120 VAC, with the added convenience that it is balanced (less noise) and clean, but you cannot run your amps from it. The Equitechs can be had in different versions, starting, I think , with units of 1000 watts output, the Euro versions of which will also give you balanced power, are set to 220VAC, but will feed your gear with 120 VAC. You'll get more information at their respective webpages. Your cost will be probably round about $3500 for both units, so its quite an investment, but its one, which is most probably beneficial for your sound, IF and only if you listen through high end stuff. Buying high end gear in Europe is puniciously expensive, your cheapest bet would be of course, to have your units converted to 220 VAC in the States before you leave. Sometimes, you only need to throw an internal switch, or have your transformers rewired or replaced, sometimes, as for example with Spectral gear, it is just not possible and you must go the way as I suggested above. Cheers, Detlof

Having imported many used American audio products from USA to Italy, I have some experience with this problem.
Actually most of the products have a power transformer with a double primary windings. So, the conversion should be quite easy . Unfortunately, many manufacturer (probably to discourage the grey market) has made quite difficult to understand which are the wires to move, and in which way they have to moved. There are also some few products, as some old Audio Research, that have dedicated transformers for the different markets, so tey cannot be converted.
Anyway, I would suggest to try to get all the information in USA, and maybe have the equipments converted by your local technicians, before you arrive in Italy. Here it will be very difficult (and often impossible) to get this kind of information from the italian distributors.
Also, please remember to check the value of the fuses on the power supply. Here they should have a value one half than in USA. That is, if you amp has a 5A fuse in USA, here you have to put a 2.5A fuse.

Paolo is perfectly right about the fuses in your electronic equipment. I forgot to mention this very important detail!

Paolo is perfectly right about the fuses in your electronic equipment. I forgot to mention this very important detail!

I wen thru this in 1994 when I moved to Rome. Once I factored in the cost of high quality outboard transformers and/or the hassles of converting mu gear to 220, I simply sold everything and purchased new gear. In fact, I bought a Linn system in the US for the primary reason that Linn gear is easily switched between 220 and 110. The funny thing is that when I moved back to the US in March 2000, I sold all my Linn gear except for the analog front end. As for the price of hi end gear in Europe, it is true that imported equipment (especially anything not European) is outrageous in Italy. However, you can buy awesome Italian equipment for much less than what it would cost you in the US, and there is a very active second hand market in Italy via ads in the leading hi fi magazines (Suono, Alta Fidelita, Audio). It all depends on what you own now, but if its not super expensive gear that you purchased new, I would definitely consider selling it and buying second hand Sonus Faber speakers and electronics by Bernardo Aloia, Pathos, Unison research, etc., etc.