![]() ![]() that happens to be attached to a very complicated box, the Gyraf G24 Passive/Aggressive Compressor we wrote about before. The VU meter is a seemingly simple electro-mechanical device. So, what is it about this time? The VU meter The task at hand was a true hybrid of different fields of knowledge, at the same time seemingly trivial and yet extremely important for the user's experience. We recently did something entirely new in our online product. ![]() Not sure if there is an Android version.This is a story about a simple VU meter. It's pretty cool and well worth the $0.99, especially if you have a spare screen for it. If the display would be optimized for the iPad, it would be all I am looking for. It will change aspect ratio (vertical vs landscape), but does not fill the screen. Really, my only complaint is that it is not formatted for the iPad, so I made it better by going into the ipad settings and turn on the zoom feature. I can monitor the relative loudness of the music from the listening position, which was a curiosity of mine as I like to listen at healthy volumes (it reads around 80db for me). I like the photorealistic look of a real sound meter and it has adjustments that make it very useful for different situations (ie C weighted seems to incorporate bass into the response and slow setting is more pleasing to watch than fast). I downloaded the iOS app below and put it on my old iPad and it works surprisingly well. So, I found an inexpensive solution - or at least a simulation. The VU meter and driver board kits from this seller look particularly attractive although I can't understand how the large rectangular ones are to be mounted. I'm not sure how accurate or reliable it is but feature wise it's what I'm looking for. This board can be powered with 12VDC and will accept an unbalanced line level signal or speaker level signals. You can identify it by the Tekram logo etched into the top of the op-amp. There are also a couple of other ebay sellers selling kits with the Tekram driver board which is the best I have found so far. It appears Tekram has their own ebay store where they sell pricey VU meters by themselves. What I noticed in the photos of their products was the Tekram Technology brand name and logo. Unfortunately they are in the EU and their stuff is expensive. Someone here shared a link to ELTIM VU meters. This cheap meter runs off of 12VDC and can be fed a speaker level signal but it looks cheesy and there's no provision for panel mounting. It requires a +/-15V power supply and only excepts unbalanced line level inputs as well. I like the quality of his driver board but he does not sell the power supply board or VU meters. Perhaps not as big nor accurate, but still, would be very cool. ![]() ![]() I would be very interested to add a component sized, finished backlit vu meter box to my system similar to the McIntosh or Accuphase look for say, under $100. Surprised there are not more plug and play boxes for sale. Accuracy is not really important, but just relative to either the signal or volume level. Or, even a stand alone with built in mic with SPL meters, so no direct connection needed. This concept seems simple and relatively inexpensive, athough ideally it would easily hook up to existing audio equipment (ie rcas out of pre- or integrated). Was googling this and happy to see an ASR thread, so Bump. ![]()
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