The ACUPWR Papers

Get Your Audio Geek On with ACUPWR!

Audiophiles are music obsessives who drop big bucks on what most of us once called stereos, but to them it’s a different, more expensive game. Most audiophiles are purists and (hopefully) passionate music lovers who prefer esoteric analog equipment such as vacuum tube amplifiers and turntables (i.e., record players) or high-resolution CD players and D/A converters over more convenient technology such as Bluetooth systems and MP3 players. It’s all an effort to get as close to the source material--the live music performance—as possible. Often this equipment is decades old, harking back to an era—the 1950s and ‘60s—when a thing called “high-fidelity” began to emerge alongside the introduction of the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing vinyl record, better known as the LP, in...

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Dangerous Plug Adapters

If you’re shopping around for an international plug adapter like the kind we sell here at ACUPWR, you may have come across a 2-in-1 type that allows access via the plug’s front and also its top. We’ve noticed some of these 2-in-1 types available throughout the internet and on Amazon. Although the 2-in-1 plugs are convenient, safety is another matter; any child with some curiosity and a paper clip will get a potentially lethal, 220-240-volt shock should the inevitable occur. If you have them and the top outlet isn’t being used, by all means make it childproof and use a plug-socket cover. Or you can eliminate the hazard and sacrifice convenience for safety with a simple 1-to-1 plug adapter. Certainly,...

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110-120 Isn’t Just North America

North America: it’s North of South America in case you didn’t know. It’s also regarded as the home of the 110-120-volt/60 Hz standard. The caveat here is Mexico; while it’s included in North America, it’s voltage standard is 127-130 volts/60 Hz.   Insofar as voltage, while the USA and Canada are most associated with the 110-120 standard, numerous other countries rely on it too, including: Anguilla, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Saba, Saint Eustatius, Saint Marten, Taiwan, Turks and Caicos, and Venezuela. Next time you hear us mention USA/Canada or USA and Canada, remember that...

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About our Lifetime Warranty and Damage Coverage

Another way ACUPWR stands out from the pack is with our customer support. All of our voltage transformers and converters are backed up with a lifetime warranty so even ten or twenty years down the road, if your ACUPWR transformer stops working—and you have been using it continuously at or below it’s wattage load capability as we recommend—we will fix or replace it free of charge. Other voltage transformer/converter makers don’t go on a limb like us; if they did, they’d be fixing their products all day. We offer a lifetime warranty because we can afford to and because, frankly, ACUPWR transformers rarely break down. Chinese-made models are notorious for catching on fire when overloaded—it’s the reason they recommend you...

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Us and Them: Thermal Protection versus Fuses

Look at the majority of Chinese-made voltage transformers on the market and you’ll notice they have fuses on the front panels of their familiar black boxes. ACUPWR transformers don’t. This isn’t earth-shattering news but we’re pointing it out as an opportunity to mention a key safety advantage about our transformers compared to theirs. Fuses are circuit breakers. They’re most recognizable as inch-long glass cartridges with a tiny wire or strip of metal inside, or in years past they screwed into circuit breakers like lightbulbs. When an appliance is equipped with a fuse, the fuse protects the appliance from potential damage as a result of over-voltage from the wall AC. The tiny wire inside the fuse is “zapped” and melts, thereby breaking...

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