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Both the Tau and the Alpha standard basestations work in the USA without modification and are fully approved to do so, they come with a universal, medical standard (for low interference) power supply suitable for either 230 or 120V, 50 or 60Hz. You don't need to buy anything extra.

The Basestation Pro also has a universal power supply that works fine on 120V, but we cannot sell you one of these in the US as we do not have regulatory approval to do so and do not intend to seek it in the near future. The Basestation Pro is fully CE approved and safety tested, but for some mad reason (which seems likely to be due to a gravy train of regulatory testing fees to be honest) this does not make it OK in the States, despite the EU standards being tougher in most respects. Sadly the testing regime now in place in the US for mains powered devices is expensive and in my opinion completely absurd (they require quarterly factory inspections at great and continuing cost for example) and beyond our means to support. If you buy a Basestation Pro in the EU, you'll find it works fine in the US but be warned, if you are at a gig and an electrical inspector on the premises looks at it for the right approval sticker and doesn't find it you may be told that you can't use it. This is very unlikely at smaller gigs, but I've heard of this sort of thing happening on larger tours. The solution to this, if it happens, is to have an isolating transformer (like the one builders use) handy, as if its plugged into one of those they can't stop you using it. You don't need a very big one as it doesn't use much power. Quite often, in better organised venues and tours the electricians have these handy anyway, but if I were using a Basestation Pro in the US I'd have one on me just in case.

I hope that makes the position clear, sorry about the minor rant about US electrical regulations! I had a very frustrating and annoying time finding all that out a year ago.

We did sell a few Basestation Pro's in the US before we realised that we needed a whole new, different approval process, and the reason that we changed the standard Basestation for the Alpha to be the one powered by an external supply was because we couldn't continue to sell them legally. If you are one of the owners of these Basestation Pro's in the US, please bear this in mind when you start gigging, and my apologies that we didn't know. They're fully safe by EU standards but you might run afoul of some officious electrical inspector at some point.

If you're buying a Tau or Alpha and using a standard Basestation, it is fully approved for use in the US.

John

Yes. The Basestation Pro should work just fine on 120V 60Hz.

John