This is my first post/question, so I'll introduce myself. Growing up, I had a friend whose dad had a B&O stacking system, probably the 5500, in his basement and a tangential-tracking record player (a BeoGram 4000?) in the attic. I was really taken with it all. In my early 20s, my first record players (acquired from the same guy who was phasing out records for CDs) were a BeoGram 1902 and a 2202. The 1902 remains in deep storage and I either sold or gave away the 2202 at some point (oops).
Decades later, after a long hiatus, I've decided to try to build a full Bang & Olufsen system around a tangential-tracking turntable. I happened upon a good deal on a BeoGram 5500 locally (Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA) that needs some modest work. It's wired for the UK and needs a cartridge.
So first, for the short term, I'm buying a cable from Sounds Heavenly to make the 5500 useable with my Sansui AU-717 integrated amp. Next, I thought I'd buy the SMMC4 cartridge from Soundsmith -- it seems easier and less risky than trying to find a reliable B&O cartridge.
The last thing (I think) I'll need to get this UK-wired 5500 working on US voltage is either to rewire it (although my experience and skills with this are limited), find a local service option (I have no idea where at this point), or -- the easiest option -- find a voltage converter.
I think the 5500's power consumption is pretty modest -- less than 10 watts if I'm reading the specs right -- so I'm guessing a 100 watt step up/step down converter like this one would work: https://www.amazon.com/Pyle-voltage-converter-Transformer-Charging/dp/B00EEJZQ5W/.
Am I on the right track? Does anyone have a better recommendation? Any general advice about BeoGram 5500s or on starting to build a vintage B&O system?
