Can anyone explain the VU Meter renaissance?

[Cooper]

My first piece of gear was a Panasonic reel to reel. All i knew was to stay out of the red.

 

[DVDdoug]

I think analog meters "look cool" but a peak-power meter is more useful than a "VU meter".

And... I've been making lighting effects since I was in junior high, and now I have giant 8-foot tall LED "VU meters" in my living room. But they aren't really "meters" at all because they continuously self-calibrate to the current (or recent) peaks so they frequently show maximum on the program peaks with loud or quiet music and no matter the volume setting.

 

[Philbo King]

P

Why is appearance so important in audio, even for objectivists.

Bling bling!

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Because it's fun. My first tape recorder had a magic eye tube. Then I got a reel to reel deck with honest to gosh VU meters. As far as practical value is concerned, they're useful for setting recording levels when they're available for that use. Otherwise they're just fun to watch. The Jivelite front end for Squeezelite on the Raspberry Pi has a VU meter screen saver that's reasonably accurate but purely for your viewing pleasure.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Magic Eye tubes............now that is some eye candy I approve of myself.

My first stereo receiver was one of the early one's to have an LED power meter which I liked much better than VU meters. I don't worry if other people like VU meters, it is about fun. I just never liked them myself. Various LED's, and VFD displays are much nicer to me. Just well selected and lit dials and indicator lights can look cool. My first receiver also had one of those tuning knobs that when you touched it, it changed color for you to retune a new station. That was neat.

 

[restorer-john]

Meters on audio gear were always about the link to laboratory/test/industrial control equipment.

The analogue moving coil meter is infinitely more intuitive than any digital display. It's physical, not numerical, is easy to understand, has ballistics which digital just cannot replicate and in many places, it is more accurate, reliable and useful.

Meters were expensive, required additional circuitry and were stripped off HiFi gear in the early 1980s in the name of minimalism. There was no technical reason other than saving considerable money- which was never passed on to consumers. Shrinkflation.

 

[radix]

So I see people saying their amp or integrated has VU meters, but they usually have dB meters, which can be accurate and can show peaks. A VU (standard Volume Unit) is not a dB watt meter. It's a calibration mechanism for test tones to get a chain of components set correctly. A VU meter is a mechanical device that relies on the weight of the needle for its accuracy. I don't believe a VU meter can show peaks, only some sort of time average. One would set 0 VU for a 1 kHz signal and the use -3 or -6 dB VU (or so) for your target music/voice levels.

 

[Count Arthur]

 

[olieb]

Because it's fun. My first tape recorder had a magic eye tube. Then I got a reel to reel deck with honest to gosh VU meters. As far as practical value is concerned, they're useful for setting recording levels when they're available for that use. Otherwise they're just fun to watch.

My grandfather's radio had a magic eye tube for tuning. That was mysterious as it took minutes to come on together with the music. My father's tape also had one but for level control. My cassette deck had needles and my DAT leds. All necessary and minimalist.

But in an amp VU meters would be completely wasted on me. When listening to music I happen to have my eyes closed anyways most of the time and when not I would look at all kinds of things but certainly not at some fidgeting needles in a black metal box.
And for a nostalgic light object I would probably choose a lava lamp or a globe.
But people are different.

 

[HoweSound]

I hadn't thought much about VU meters since my old cassette recording days when they were mandatory to set levels. My Eversolo DMP A6 has an LCD VU meter option and I like it as a substitute for a boring album art display.

I agree with the comment that: "Meters on audio gear were always about the link to laboratory/test/industrial control equipment." If I decide to nerd out I will get small dual oscilloscopes and watch the traces dance across the display tubes in time to my music.

 

[restorer-john]

I don't believe a VU meter can show peaks, only some sort of time average.

Some can show peaks, peak hold, averages etc. It depends on the circuitry/IC driving the meter and the ballistics of the movement itself. Some moving coil meters back in the day had twin movements, one needle on top of another, with one indicating VU/Average and the other showing peak/peak hold.

 

[Chrispy]

I don't particularly understand it. I eagerly got some amps with vu meters about 40 years ago and after a bit of use stopped looking, just not that interesting let alone accurate it turned out (and even more so in this case likely).....now if the vu meters are lit I prefer the light off.

 

[restorer-john]

I have many amplifiers, cassette decks, open reel decks and DATs with meters and plenty of gear without meters. Even got a TT someplace (Pioneer) with a meter on it. Sometimes I turn off the meters, other times not.

There's no doubt meters make HiFi more interesting, but sometimes they distract.

 

[Killingbeans]

Why is appearance so important in audio, even for objectivists.

Because "objectivism" in this hobby is all about avoiding letting your subjective experience cloud your judgement of reality.

It's not about eradicating the subjective experience itself and the enjoyment it gives you

 

[kemmler3D]

There was no technical reason other than saving considerable money- which was never passed on to consumers.

You're not gonna like this, but you could argue that the renaissance of cheap high performance desktop gear is (in part) enabled by that trend towards feature-minimalism. If, in some alternate history, gear was considered incomplete and unacceptable without a VU meter, all of our DACs would cost $150+ more because they'd all have VU meters. I guess It just took some new competitors to pass the savings along.

 

[pablolie]

Why is appearance so important in audio, even for objectivists.

Haha just on the light of the review... check my reponse there.

VU meters to me were at their most useful when we were recording compact cassettes so we wouldn't overdrive and create additional compression.

These days the only value I see in a Vu is in showing compression in a recording as we listen to it. I can hear how loud I am listening, thanks, dont need a VU for that.

Basically, just like I dont need an armband to tell me I slept like crap. I know. Damn armband is mocking me in the morning on top. I toss it in the trash.

I am not sure why we need devices to tell us the trivial stuff we already know.

 

[restorer-john]

I am not sure why we need devices to tell us the trivial stuff we already know.

Would you buy a car without a speedometer, a tacho and a fuel gauge?

 

[pablolie]

Would you buy a car without a speedometer, a tacho and a fuel gauge?

Because thats stuff we dont know directly, and our local law enforcement has interest if we dont watch our speedometers. Misplaced counter example.
I would never be stupid enough to buy a car without a speedometer. Clearly no car driver in 50 years has. Come on. Flawed counter.

 

[Chrispy]

Because thats stuff we dont know directly, and our local law enforcement has interest if we dont watch our speedometers. Misplaced counter example.
I would never be stupid enough to buy a car without a speedometer. Clearly no car driver in 50 years. Come.on.

Well a track only car you may not care about mph vs rpm, but otherwise I agree

 

[pablolie]

Well a track only car you may not care about mph vs rpm, but otherwise I agree

Acutally rpms I can hear and feel. Does anyone ever in their history of stickshift car driving have looked at the RPM meter to decide when to shift?