A room with a VU
In this video I’m looking at four VU meter type displays bought from ebay.
If you’re thinking of buying the fourth model shown (the boxed one), I’d recommend doing it within the next 24 hours, before the video goes public, as the chap on ebay only has a few for sale.
The links can be accessed on youtube by clicking at the top of the embedded video once it's playing.
Comments (24)
I love the VU meter / graphic equaliser / spectrum analyser videos you’ve done. Would love to see more if there are any more decent ones available. Cheers Matt, from 9 years ago 😁 Lee
This one looks good for the money? - <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Velleman-Bausatz-K8098-Audio-Analysator-/171739519128?epid=2254300774&hash=item27fc791898:g:DhsAAOSwr81URhMa" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Velleman-Bausatz-K8098-Audio-Analysator-/171739519128?epid=2254300774&hash=item27fc791898:g:DhsAAOSwr81URhMa</a>
Blows my mind that there isnt more of an industry around after market VU-meters (or just a general trend of keeping them in HiFi equiptment). Such a great feature that is sorely missed these days.
The last segment of your video, where you placed your Sony Walkman Pro directly atop the bar display unit, clearly shows the problem with traditional mechanical VU meters. Their needle inertial causes so much response lag that the traditional meters never show the true peak signal levels. And that's a ticket to Distortion-Land if you are relying on old-school VU meters when making an audio recording!
I was sort of interested in the vacuum tube one.. not because I want one or thought it looked cool. But I'm curious how it actually works.. what is actually producing the light and how is it controlled like that? Also, loved the Anders Jensen music you used!
For those who listen to music with a PC/laptop, there's a nice stereo VU Meter utility at <a href="http://vuplayer.com/other.php" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://vuplayer.com/other.php</a> It works with pretty much any application that plays audio. E.g. I position it above the Spotify window while playing music.
Another thing that LaMetric could do but doesn't.
It seems the first 3 may have been intended to be integrated into a project that the purchaser would be building, rather than a stand-alone product like the #4 item. That #3 display was pretty nice! Though... could probably find some "real" analogue meters for the purpose.
Ah, the glorious 70's and 80's electronics, virtually all components that could have vu meters did. Also bright cheery displays, with large dials, multicolored lighting of various sorts. Nowadays it's black, with black on black, and somewhere on the front a tiny display that can't be read more than a couple of feet away. There must be a reward for who can produce the smallest display, possibly they will disappear altogether in the future. McIntosh almost stands alone now as a maker of (expensive) components that you love to just look at. Very sad.
It's a sentiment I've shared across many a video over the years...I just don't understand why all the affordable Hi-Fi companies agreed that being boring was the way forward. If you want boring then fine...but they should at least give buyers an option.
Will do.
It's just possible that the LED panel is some sort of spectrum analyser. It depends on the 'law' of the metering and the 'ballistics' of the display. In my work (TV, film & radio sound) music can look quite different on a PPM meter to a Vu meter but they're both telling the truth, just in different ways. The way to tell is to play some tones calibrated for frequency and amplitude and see if the columns actually correspond to anything. If you want to try I can send you some .WAVs that will do the trick. Remember as well that if you put both sides of a stereo signal into a single display you may well get erroneous peaks and troughs due to phase differences. Cheers. Neil.
If you want you could send them over to mat@techmoan.com and I'll give it a go before the display is banished into the attic.
Ah a feature greatly missed from today's Hi-Fi equipment! Interesting to see the aftermarket options available, I may look into some external needle style VU Meters (Like shown on the Sony Tape Player) and mount them inside a casing - a future video of my own maybe. The last VU Meter shown was for me the clear winner. Look forward to the next one, cheers Matt.
I've often thought about that idea...the only problem I'd have is the fabrication side. There are some suitable VU meters and metal cases on eBay, but cutting the holes to neatly mount the meters might prove difficult.
I have a similar obsession, I bought a dual barograph kit which turned out to be all surface mount components and left me cross eyed for a week after building it, <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AS30-Stereo-Music-Spectrum-Analyzer-LED-Level-Display-Kits-VU-Meter-amplifier/152653672775?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3Ddd624ab3cd1245babdf40c06fb232cb3%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D262406582262&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AS30-Stereo-Music-Spectrum-Analyzer-LED-Level-Display-Kits-VU-Meter-amplifier/152653672775?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3Ddd624ab3cd1245babdf40c06fb232cb3%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D262406582262&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851</a> and a nice multi functional one that does VU or various types of spectrum analyser type displays from a chap in Bulgaria who's since vanished from Ebay. I think it comes from those 80's and 90's stereos that had lots or displays where modern kist just has a power LED if you're lucky. Excellent video as always.
I've seen that kit around too, but after looking at the number of small components I decided against buying one...it sounds like I probably made the right decision.
(You could even do a quick review of it! :-)
Interesting video Mat, I doubt I would buy any of those, but I do like to learn about what's out there. A thought: if you need to get rid of the dust on (especially black) items before you do close-ups, try this stuff: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01NCECIAA/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01NCECIAA/</a> I was sceptical until I tried it - works a treat.
I'll definitely look into that. The issue I have is that I don't see the dust with my eyes or through the camera's LCD screen..even when editing I miss it because I'm viewing the video in a small window (although at that point it's too late anyway).So it's only when I watch the finished edit in full screen that I finally see it. I suppose with that stuff I could splodge it on whatever I was shooting just in case it did have some dust on it whether I could see it or not.
The fourth one is certainly a VU to a kill
I went through a few VU puns before I settled on this one. 'Just admiring the VUs' was a runner up.
Hehe, I see what you did there. :)
Cracking title and a great vid. Ta.