How much power does the thing draw?

I bought a universal European power converter for around $20 back 10 years ago, so I could run just about anything (within reason) when we went travelling abroad. It would even run hair dryers.

Perhaps that's because the Chinese are dumping cheap products here instead of in your country.

 

...I think 600-800W at maximum power
No, we have import taxes for anything which comes outside Europe and even the product makers have bigger prices.
for example a digital camera which in US is listed at $1,299 in Europe it's 1,299euro's which is $1,900
an AV receiver which in US is $800 in Europe it's 800-1000euro, depends from which country do you buy it, in eastern europe they are more expensive than in western countries.

 

It's looks like it also has a second low power transformer to supply voltage to the unit in Standby mode. This makes the problem of internal modification twice as difficult.