Getting OPT in Japan?

[lhgin]

Hi guys,

Wonder if you guys have experience shopping for output transformers in Japan? I've heard that the local price is much cheaper compared to the export price for famous OPTs like Tango, Tamura or Hashimoto.

Could you give me some directions please? I'll be on business this coming month there for a couple of days.

Thanks!
Ken

[levelfive]

Hi, Ken

Price is almost the same, but excluding shipping
Biggest distribution company is http://www.eifl.co.jp/

About the secret shops in big cities should ask the Japanese users, be sure they are there.

Regards, Konstantin

[Stixx]

I've seen shops with tube gear around Akihabara but don't expect to buy at half price...
While I wasn't shopping for opt's I got myself a nice detented TKD pot (at about 10% less than the good prices on the net).

[nicoch58]

TWOGOODEARS - ??????????: September 2009

[CaliforniaBob]

If you're in Tokyo, take the JR? line to Akihabara,
to the Tokyo Radio Department, up the escalator
up one level, on the left is a transformer shop.

This was as of about 2 years ago.

and see ‚¨‚©‚°‚³‚Ü‚Å60”N�F“Œ‹žƒ‰ƒWƒIƒfƒp�[ƒg
(first picture is the building front - you'll need this)

and there are lots of shops in that area
selling all sorts of tube gear and parts.

good luck.

Bob

[CFT]

I bought a pair of Noguchi FM-3WS (Hitachi Finemet core) this month at the basement of that Tokyo Radio Dept buidling (60 years in business this year!!) .

Plenty to choose from.....

Yes, following that link and lots of interesting shops there!

[pmillett]

Have a look here:

Parts in Asia

I spend a fair amount of time in Japan. I am actually headed there this morning (from Taipei) and will be strolling around Akiba this afternoon...

For OPTs, the two shops I'd recommend are Noguchi Transformers (in the basement of the Tokyo Radio Department or TRD building) and Hino Audio, which is a couple of blocks from Akihabara station.

The prices in Japan are definitely lower than what I have seen charged in the US, at least for Tango and Tamura.

The guys at Noguchi cannot (or will not) speak English and are not very helpful. Basically if you know what model number you want you're OK. You can figure out what they have from their web site. At Hino the staff is helpful and at least one guy speaks good English.

If you're interested in bargain OPTs also check out the stalls under the tracks (Tokyo Radio Center). There is one transformer company (cannot remember the name) that sells their own brand of OPTs and chokes that are very economical, and at least the one I tried worked well.

You might also want to visit Classic Components, which is mostly a tube shop, but also has Tango transformers for a little cheaper than Noguchi (last Time I bought some, anyway). Hard to find the shop, but a really good selection of tubes, and some of the oddballs are priced reasonably.

Pete

[Pano]

Hey Pete - great resource your webpage is! Thanks for posting. Would love to visit those shops.
The page is very heavy, tho. Your image file sizes are much bigger than they need to be. Slow to load even on a fast connection - and may be costing you bandwidth, if your host charges for it.

I can fix that for you, if you like.

[nicoch58]

Great Pete !

[pmillett]

Originally Posted by panomaniac

Slow to load even on a fast connection - and may be costing you bandwidth, if your host charges for it.

Nothing compared to the 1TB of book PDFs that get downloaded every month

The pics are big, but I think the bottleneck is my host. "Unlimited bandwidth" really means that they don't charge you per GB - it is still limited. So even small stuff can be slow to download sometimes, depending on traffic.

Pete