[Amps] 220V service for amplifier

[R.Measures]

>While I was president of Alpha/Power and involved in repair of
>Alpha 77 amps I asked Dick Ehrhorn why he had designed the
>amps with only a 3-wire AC connection and with a 120 VAC blower
>since this design made the amp much more difficult to use
>in foreign countries that have 220-only service.  (If you insist on
>using a 120 VAC blower at least design the transformer so that
>the primary can be used as an autotransformer to power the
>blower.)

**  amen
>
>Dick was quite candid about his answer saying that he just didn't
>know any better at the time.  Pointing out the difference between
>an electronics engineer and an electrician/electrical (power) engineer.
>
**  Heath managed to use a 120Vac fan on the ancient SB-220 by connecting 
it across one of the dual 120v privaries on the HV transformer.

>I truly appreciate candor.  In the early days of microprocessors
>(S-100 bus and CP/M and 8080s) Dr. Godbout brought out an
>8K Basic on ROM (a bank of 1702s on its own board, if I recall)
>This seemed like a major breakthrough since it obsoleted the
>requirement of loading 8K Basic from the paper tape reader which
>took about 30 minutes each time you turned on your computer.
>But running Basic from ROM rather than RAM seemed like it
>might be a bit slower--so I called him and asked him just how
>fast his Basic ran from ROM.   His answer was, "Its slower than
>hell!"  That sort of candor and honesty with no marketing hype
>impressed me and it still does.  Tell me what your product will
>do AND WHAT IT WON'T DO and I will make the decision based on
>proper information and I will be a good customer.  Hide shortcomings
>from me, only to be discovered after I buy your product then I won't
>be back--unless you have me by the short hairs--like Microsoft!
>
**  One has a choice, unless one enjoys battling computer worms, viruses, 
and taurine feces.  

cheers, John