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Practicalities Of Importing Home theatre system from the US

MrAnarchy (Mostly Harmless) posted this on Wednesday, 27th February 2002, 17:55

I have been looking at a number of US websites and I cannot get over the difference in prices for home theatre systems between Europe and the US.I have been primarily looking at Sony products.
In the U.K the best price I could find for the Sony DAVS500 DVD player is 456 pounds.In the US I found the same product retailing at $450 !
It is identical in Specification.
Would it be practical to bring these back from the US .I visit it now and again so I could pick one easily enough.
Does anyone know what difficulties I may have apart from the obvious ones which I think can easily be overcome.
UpConvert the voltage supply and use an NTSC compatible TV and use region 1 discs.
Apart from these I dont see any problems ?
I also found a great surround sound receiver for $300 .The Sony HTD DW830 with these specs
550 watts of total system power
Built-in Dolby Digital, dts and Dolby Pro Logic decoding
Digital Cinema Sound Studio A, B, C
Digital Cinema Sound Virtual 3D modes
11 digital soundfields with Soundfield Link
Four satellite speakers for Front and Surround with 2" x 3-1/2" full-range drivers
Center speaker with two 2" x 3-1/2" full range drivers
Active subwoofer with 50 watts x 1, into 8 ohms from 20 Hz - 200 Hz at 0.8% THD and 6-1/4" long-throw woofer
5.1-channel analog inputs
Tuner with 20 FM and 10 AM presets
32-bit full Digital Signal Processing
2 Optical, 1 coaxial digital input
A/V UniCommander remote control

The only modification I can see this item needing is a higher mains voltage.
Does anyone know if it is that simple ?

RE: Practicalities Of Importing Home theatre system from the US

gpen (Competent) posted this on Wednesday, 27th February 2002, 18:42

Maplins sell a transformer to adapt UK mains to run US spec appliances for about 50 quid - but by the time you spend this.....and get hit by customs and shipping charges, you might find the saving isn`t really worth the hassle.

RE: Practicalities Of Importing Home theatre system from the US

Paull (Elite) posted this on Wednesday, 27th February 2002, 19:04

I`ve been told that the tuner section is different. It goes up in bigger (or maybe) smaller frequencies. Guarantee. Customs duty,unless it is a gift. Yes rip off Britain strikes again.

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