International Bright Young Things

[Jamboman]

As we all know this little island we all call home is, if you read certain newspapers, also the last bastion of sky high prices and rock bottom customer services. Although I don’t fully subscribe to this philosophy it got me thinking. Many of our members will be international travellers but in the same vein will be reluctant to buy audio video products abroad for fear of incompatibility, differing voltage and strangely configured plugs. My question to you all is this. Are there any sure fire purchases an international traveller can buy and bring home to the UK, on a plane, without fear of getting it home and realising it’s a £200 door stop? There are obviously size constraints and I have a budget of £1000. I’m off to New York in a couple of months and I’m thinking about cables, universal remotes, ipods, docking stations etc. Nothing too bulky.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Any of the items you mention should work fine. You may have to buy plug adapters for anything with a mains charger - universal remotes, iPods, etc. - but that'll be the only problem.

 

[professorhat]

Main thing to look for is to make sure the device can accept 110V - 240V input voltage - if it can, you can just use a standard plug adaptor to change the foreign plug socket it comes with to the British kind i.e. the kind of adaptor someone from the country you are visiting would buy to get their electrical stuff working in the UK. This is probably going to be easier to buy while you're out there obviously.