What a lovely VU : A metre of meters*

A look at three audio level meters - one old, two new.
AFFILIATED eBay links to the items shown in this video below:
Mini Spectrum Analyser
Available with or without the Aluminium case from these links
UK ebay.to/2PaO0ea
US ebay.to/2KJbQiz
CA ebay.to/2ICbpnt
DE ebay.to/2V1fAzR
NL ebay.to/2DhMfXZ
Dodgy Multi-colour LED spectrum analyser
UK ebay.to/2Gg1LUV
US ebay.to/2v5E0cT
Classic RTW 1206 Peak Level Meters make occasional ebay appearances:
UK ebay.to/2PghqYE
US ebay.to/2ImL3qj
DE ebay.to/2UkeTxs
They’re listed more frequently on the German (DE) ebay.
*Dimensions approximate
Post credits comedy sketch available on its own here: • Whining
or as part of the Comedy Playlist • Comedy
C64 Game featured in outro = doublesidedgames.com/shop/com...
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---------Outro Music----------
Over Time - Vibe Tracks • Over Time - Vibe Track...
-----Outro Sound Effect-----
ThatSFXGuy - • Six Million Dollar man...
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All links are Affiliated where possible.
When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network & Amazon.
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[@Jingleboy14]

I love how RTW got back to you so fast, and with the correct info.

[@DasGanon]

I'm pretty sure there's a German stereotype here somewhere. . .

[@StarkRG]

@@DasGanon Yes, they've always been very good at numbering things and people to track them and record their movement, status, disposal, etc.

[@mor0358]

@@StarkRG lol

[@AlexOjideagu2]

How did you write this comment 4 days ago if it says published on the 1st of may. Are you Dr Strange?

[@Richard-ox6zk]

How can your reply be from 4 days back while the video was posted 7 hours ago ?

[@harvesteroftone5473]

"I think my brain can smell the future, and next Thursday is the colour blue".

[@CascadeHush]

Best line ever spoken on a KZbin video.

[@MrUlski]

So funny 😆

[@ayle1312]

New Order - Blue Tuesday

[@CharlesFigueroaJr]

I laughed hysterically!

[@Christopher-N]

About 20 years ago, I could walk down the street and I could tell which houses were watching television even though you couldn't hear the audio outside, just from that high pitched signal.

[@itsmewillempy]

it is a neon plasma display. old pinball machine use te same type of displays with orange dot pixels.

[@pinballmagician]

and they use +100 V/ -100V DC to make them work, so it takes a very special power supply that most consumer stuff isn't going to have.

[@irtbmtind89]

The Japanese electronics industry went all-in on Plasma technology in the 1990's, with lots of government funded R&D. LCD displays then got cheap and ate their lunch. The information displays in Japanese train stations and airports used to use similar displays. They must have been expensive but could display very bright and sharp text compared to LED and flipdot signs.

[@erlendse]

Exactly. It's more spesifically a self-scanning neon bargraph!

[@SourcererZZ]

No wonder those pinball machines had a very different and distinctive brightness and color in their displays.

[@albinklein7680]

A boost converter that converts 12V to +/- 100V costs under $1 I think.

[@Sven.Bornemark]

Every Radio Sweden control room/studio I've worked in, had those RTW meters. It was certainly the most important item in the whole room; no audio engineer would ever risk being too loud in national radio! I just love watching them!

[@jeanmikael_1265]

How about the Danish NTP meters. That was what I started out using 1981. I always claimed it to be a must to have somewhere in your angle of view since it so clearly alerted me for playing to loud.

[@rienpost3145]

Yes, RTW 1206 meters are professional (and extremely sturdy) gear. I've used them for years in edit suites, broadcast vans, etc. Hold on to it. It's worth every penny.

[@jamescollins6085]

If only I could find one somewhere. I wonder how many years one of them would last? They certainly look like they are built to last.

[@rienpost3145]

@@jamescollins6085 They last almost forever. In 30 years I've never seen one break down, let me put it like that. Where to find one? Apart from the obvious Ebay, try local radio studios and things like that. They may have changed to computer/DAW based meters...

[@gimble8638]

my rtw 1206 has been part of my studio for around 25years and still faultless, useful and relevant to this day :) amazed to see you feature one tbh matt, great stuff :)

[@matambale]

"I think my brain can smell the future, and next Thursday's the color blue" - just confirming I heard that

[@diatonicdelirium1743]

Yeah, but mr. Moanie got it wrong! Thursday is ruled by Jupiter, and it's associated colour is yellow. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if he deliberately gave wrong information, as it seems he's being controlled by external forces...

[@recklessroges]

Another cracking puppet sketch. (Also, good call on the video length and keeping the other displays for future videos.)

[@johannesc.schmidt2054]

I have a RTW similar to this one but with digital AES inputs and I love it. Watching it while listening to music is quite relaxing! Thank you so much for your videos!

[@davidf2281]

FYI you can tell the approximate vintage of the RTW meter (and most other bits of kit) by the date code on, eg, the chip at the top right at 11:02. '9030' = 30th week of 1990.

[@AtheistOrphan]

davidf2281 - Plus ‘Made in WEST Germany’!

[@AtheistOrphan]

Yankis - True. I recently bought a ‘new old stock’ Cullmann tripod that had a ‘Made in West Germany’ sticker on it.

[@gimble8638]

yeah but what about trabants? ;)

[@AuntieFan]

The "Made In West Germany" sticker is a less accurate measurement if they had lots of stickers left over, and German law wasn't altered to make them stop using them.

[@buddyclem7328]

Good eye! I had forgotten all about date codes.

[@BertGrink]

Very nice touch of RTW to reply, not just at all, but with such celerity.

[@Richard_Jones]

Also excellent use of the word celerity.

[@4468]

We all did get used to the CRT whine but it was still noticeable to an extent. I remember when I'd been out for the day/night I could hear/sense the crt whine coming from a distant TV as soon as I opened the front door, even if you couldn't hear the sound of the TV show being watched. Thinking about it I got some level of comfort from it, you knew your Mum or loved one was home and was up waiting for you to return. You knew someone was home without a word being spoken.

[@X0mb13]

related to the end of the video: I love CRT whine. When I was younger, I could always tell when someone turned on a tv anywhere in the house. It also gave me the ability to predict when it was going to be a "movie day" at school because I could hear the TV on in the back room... frequently also meant that there would be a substitute teacher that day lol

[@zolondk]

Was just waiting for you to change the scale on the RTW meter. Press and slide the RTW button, and it will change from DIN PPM to VU scale.

[@josuelservin2409]

I'm glad we got to see the puppets, they cheer my day! And I'm eager to see the rest of the meters also.

[@ole9421]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT! Keep them coming as I'm looking for a good one of these.

[@JayHarrisonGoogle]

Bring on the Next 4! Great video, as always!

[@MagnaLume]

What a great video. From the instant you opened the RTW, it was evident that it was a well designed and robust piece of kit. It should last forever.

[@lutello3012]

My favorite visualizations by far are spectrograms, don't see enough of those at all.

[@vogelvogeltje]

Mine is a vectorscope.

[@Solidier1]

Another great video. It's been a real entertaining.

[@andymouse]

could watch this sort of stuff all day...thanks

[@thejeffchen]

I have a tinnitus around 7K to 9KHz. So even after all the CRTs disappear, I can still enjoy the lovely high-pitched noise until the day I die.

[@Roxor128]

I think the CRT whine is around 15-16kHz, so you're not getting the same whine from your tinnitus. The demise of the CRT just means one fewer whine for you to put up with.

[@thejeffchen]

Luckily, I'm also deaf above 7K on the other side, so only half of me would be suffering, thanks to the magic of antibiotics.

[@mazda9624]

Great video from start to finish! I thin that end skit was one of my favorites!

[@lhadd6877]

My uncle worked at Arena Synchron Studios in West-Berlin and I am pretty sure to remember seeing a 1206 device sitting on top of his mixer when I visited him in the studio in about 1987. Next time I see him, I'll surely ask him about that. Anyway thanks for bringing up those memories. Greetings from Germany, Lars

[@jh5881]

I could listen to you all day..... As long as you don't say audacity, iPhone or Amazon that is. I really like your channel.

[@FabioGnecco]

you can make a 45 minutes video about trees and i will watch lol take care techmoan

[@spuds6423]

As long as they are "Happy Trees"!!!😃😄 (Bob Ross joke)

[@YCbCr]

Even these 15 minutes didn't feel like it. Some videos I skip in and skip hard, but not Techmoan ones :)

[@ZealKingdom]

They just don't make trees like they used to.

[@miekkb]

so true, lol!

[@RobertHeadley]

I love these kinds of videos.

[@mateuspinesi]

Back in the 90s, when I started my first electronics course I was fascinated with audio circuits and the VU meters was the coolest project to show to other kids in school hahaha. Still have my LM3915 Pcb somewere

[@linuxbeastmaster9192]

Thanks for another excellent video.

[@jonathancook4022]

I was hoping for a meter long meter!!!!

[@Roxor128]

Aw, so close... Should have been "metre-long meter".

[@buddyclem7328]

I was also hoping for a VU meter that was 39.34 inches in length.

[@brandondegraaf]

Fat chance. Metric was phased out ahead of Brexit. Fear not though, you can still use feet, inches, yards, shaftments, cubits, paces, ells, digits, palms, or fathoms.

[@murrfeeling]

@@brandondegraaf kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGaQpGBqgLWnepo

[@FranLab]

I'd be interested to see if there were any other elements on the VFD tube hidden from view by the case cover... They could have made that tube with red and orange phosphors if it were purpose built instead of using a colored lens, so it makes me think that the display may have been adapted for this particular product.

[@garideb]

What a smashing film, thanks!

[@KaWouter_]

I'm happy I can still hear the high pitched note from the crt.

[@friguy4444]

Great little bit of creative work to show about the high frequencies of the old Electronics. That bit of sound at the very end was really funny to me. But I guess those of us that are a bit older know those sounds well LOL. Thanks!

[@williampamblanco]

Great video! Can't wait for the next one. Been wanting to either put some displays together or get something with analog VU meters and a frequency analyzer to look nice on my setup :)

[@AndrewWilsonOz]

Another great video. Thank you.

[@cheeseparis1]

Thanks for this video, looking forward to the next one! You said the second Vu-meter has the same width as a cassette tape. I loved this comparison unit, only our generation _immediately_ knows how wide it is and where it can fit. By the way, on a cassette player, the indicators also have the witdh of a tape.

[@ataricx6477]

Love those video's, greetings from the Netherlands :)

[@dermichicom]

My father has a 1206 since the 80s and it's the only piece of eqipment from back there which he is still using in his studio. Now that's quality.

[@stacyswirl]

That was one of the best puppet sketches I've seen here. And your video, as always, makes me desperately want to go to ebay and look up tech!

[@pmgodfrey]

I have two Dorrough 40-A meters in my little audio rack. Really helps get everything to an ideal level on the mixer. After calibrating them according to how Dorrough recommends, I can trust the audio signals.

[@johnyinnit]

Really enjoyed this ep!

[@sparksw9dkb187]

Funny sketch at the end. I remember that horizontal oscillator whine from the old TV sets. Drove me nuts. Old Dad wondered what I went on about.

[@kmlijewski8523]

You have a nice selection of meters. Also I enjoy your reviews! Thanks.My fav meters are the Dorrough peak and hold LED meters. If you like nostalgic instruments, IVIE IE30a is a interesting portable RA unit. For bench work there is the Sound Technology 1510a for tape deck work. It does suffer from the dreaded shorted solid tantalum cap problem. Luckily, the power supply self protects until the shorted caps are replaced.

[@cbcdesign001]

Wow! I have not seen one of those tube based VU meters (Top right image 0:21) since the early 70's when we had one in an old reel to reel tape deck. Fantastic!

[@nespressoman]

I LOVE your videos.

[@andreaswheeler]

ha ha love the outro 'next Thursday is the colour blue' awesome video too, loved how RTW actually got back to you

[@colinfox3445]

loved the show

[@cjc363636]

Thanks!! And one of the best skits yet!! I nearly did a spit take with my morning coffee more than once!! Funny as hell!! Thanks again, Techmoan!

[@orlandokaraoke3002]

We were making cool Jumbo led level meters for the stereo in our room or in the car when we were 10 yrs old. Of course most normal kids didn't get a new soldering iron for Christmas. But we knew how to build circuits. And in the level meter ended up on a hat with a radio and a phone. As siblings it became a competition to see who could make the coolest hat. Fond memories 😊

[@mm-hl7gh]

the rtw was essential when recording analog betacam tapes for tv stations or such. btw, you can push over the logo button on the front from right to left, for upright operation. loving your channel!

[@SSand4]

Another great puppet sketch! I could always hear that sound from our old CRTs, I don't miss it, but it also never bothered me much because it was soon drowned out by whatever I was watching.

[@ollieb9875]

I enjoyed this. Thanks.

[@jurgenbussche]

always good content

[@bentsignpost]

Plasma display, lovely. Reminds me of the Neve VR mixing desk meter bridge, peak & VU for each channel. The meter bridge had its own rack mount power supply! Power hungry bit of kit.

[@convair52]

My favorite vu meters was the fluorescent meters of Technics RS-M253X and the analog meters in Sony TC-K4 cassette deck. In my teens I was never tired watching them while playing cassettes on those decks.

[@buzzsah]

Thanks, I can use one. Thanks for supplying the links

[@TheSmarsden]

I've just hooked up my Sony SEQ-D705, taken from a MIDI stack i grabbed form Marketplace for £30, to my DENON AVR-1803. Nice to add some visual bling, love this video. Fab as ever, thanks for reading :)

[@WJCTechyman]

As always, thanks for sharing!

[@protheu5]

As always, thanks for video.

[@reggiep75]

In the early 80's, when my Dad was still HEAVILY in to his hi-fi gear, he used to love making amps and would always put a spectrum analyser on to the few amps that he made for himself and I remember sitting next to his gear as he played something like ELO or The Beatles and him always reminded my not to jump around too much to ensure the stylus didn't jump and telling my to look at the lights move to the sound!

[@vdochev]

I grew up with the sound of CRT and VHS recorders after midnight. They are some of the most relaxing sounds I can think of.

[@yusdiy]

You certainly displayed some VU not known to us. Great video as always sir.

[@lucheins872]

Puppet story was awesome again! Thankyou for that.

[@josephmay4937]

Love all your videos hope you’re doing well

[@wpherigo1]

Really enjoyed that!

[@kins749]

Really great vid

[@BoBB2000]

looking forward to see the Dorrough Loudness Monitors in the next video.

[@RobertKeenanComp-U-Right]

SO glad I stayed to the end for very humorous puppet sketch!

[@untrust2033]

The simple aluminium one would be really cool just as a clock!

[@johnclavis]

As always, thanks for your videos!

[@Borrelnoot1982]

That RTW peakmeter brings back good memories. We had one in our radiostudio, sadly during economical problems we had to close the studio after 50 years and sell the parts. Should have bought that peakmeter..

[@lackomalacko]

If you are interested in the display used in the RTW, just look up IN-33 or PBG12201 (these are basically the same, one is a Russian made the other one was manufactured by Burroughs). It is actually a bar graph display, but quite different from the IN-13 you've mentioned, it is more complex to drive. Burroughs called it a "Self scan" bar graph display. According to an app-note I've found they also had circular ones available, although I've never seen any of that before.

[@ChongMcBong]

thanks for opening it, i was itching to see what sort of display it is

[@socksumi]

I remember when Radio Shack sold outboard power/VU meters in a little box for cheap. You just hooked them up to your speaker outputs... I can't imagine they were too accurate but they sure were cool to look at those lit up analog displays flying in the breeze.

[@LRM12o8]

That Outro sketch was brilliant! I'm 21 and this crt whine sound in the sketch was extremely uncomfortable to me even through my smartphone's crappy speakers. Usually I watch videos on my PC with headphones and have to turn the volume way down when there's a CRT in it. How I could bear to watch TV or play NES games on my parent's CRT screen when I was a little kid is beyond me. Well, seems you do get used to it, when there's no alternative, but boy am I glad the days of CRT screens are over!

[@RikMcCloud]

The only time I felt those high pitch sounds being uncomfortable for me was when I was playing the original Gran Turismo and Oxyacetylene by Cubanate came on. You get to just after two minutes in and my 9 year old ears were really sensitive to the effect they used. Now I am nearly 30 and I have no issues at all. If you want to listen to the song, it is on KZbin.

[@Thelemorf]

What crt whine?

[@sarah1390]

Holy I'm 30 and I can still hear the whine from those CRT monitors even with youtube compression and played over a crappy speaker. When CRT was still being used in my house I could use the whine to tell when the tv was on and on mute from behind the tv. I'm not complaining about how good my hearing still is but now I can't get my ears to stop hearing that tone. I still use a CRT monitor when I decide to play retro games but I don't know why today my ears reacted like this. Actually there is another KZbin channel that I watch fairly where a few videos use that high of a frequency to announce another presence and those videos I really have to tone down the volume.

[@user-vz7mu4su9n]

This is hilarious, you seriously don't get you are the exact person this sketch is poking fun at. "Hey everyone I'm sooo sensitive. Pleeease someone acknowledge that I have sensitive hearing." But no one cares because they can see you're just blowing it out of proportion to try and get attention. Wow you must have sensitive hearing. You're amazing. Are you satisfied now?

[@theladyfingers___]

Weird, I am sensitive to HF whine and even through my headphones I couldn't hear any whine in the audio here. I tested them with some 16-20 kHz tones (aaaaargh!) and they're fine.

[@TofranBohk]

Your obsessing with VU meters and spectrum analyzers is like mine with the same kind of android apps. I have a bunch of spectrum analyzer apps on my phone that work by using the mic. It's fun to see them work. 😃

[@miketomas8564]

It's called a FloraScan Display (if I have that spelled correctly) It's also the same display as in our Akai EA-A7 7-band Graphic Equalizer. It's colored florescent paint that is energized by (i believe) grounding the proper painted surface to cause the paint to Flores. The neat thing about a FloraScan Display is that the manufacturer can design any kind of icon to be lit up, in any given color, for any given function. They would kind of be the predecessor to OLed but required some sort of gas, like argon to function.

[@thcollegestudent]

I've really been craving visual elements for my music like this. Over the last year or so I've been reminiscing of the days of when software like winamp had 100s of visualization plugins from dancers to starscapes and matrix code. It's crazy to me that most of that sorta thing seems to have all but dried up considering how prolific it seemed and considering most people's music player is also a device with a screen.

[@janovlk]

In former Czechoslovakia were produced modulometers with moving mirrors (for stereo). It gave them speed to be proper peak meters. Some designer had an idea use them in locomotives as indicators of preset and current speed. When sun shone into cabin you couldn't see anything.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

janovlk And what happened when crossing bumpy "points" (English word for the thing that directs train onto a different track as needed

[@singeslayer8367]

Love the plasma display on the 1206.

[@justpassnthru]

Best puppet outro in ages. Bravo!

[@justinromanowich1763]

I (was) having just a normal, ordinary day. It turned to AWESOME, right after "new Techmoan video" alert. Ahhh, thanks mate.

[@azyfloof]

I'd love to see a repair vid on the craptacular VU meter :) Also I'd LOVE to see a more in depth look at the internals of the RTW meter. I see some DAC chips in there, an EEPROM, and what look like display drivers. I'm intrigued!

[@alancooper9178]

Excellent video as usual Matt 👍👍👍 What was the nice little but OF EDM you used to test with? Thanks so much for doing all this & putting so much time & effort into them. Would love to see more odd turntables in the future maybe?

[@ChristofferLundgrenSweden]

I have a slightly more modern version of the RTW instrument, it has a really cool sliding way of changing between two scales. I thought yours had it too, until you opened it. Look it up - it’s pretty cool! You slide the scale mechanically by yourself, and the instrument calculates vu instead of ppm.

[@Roxor128]

I love the title. A perfect demonstration to the Yanks of when to use what spelling.

[@tekvax01]

fairly sure the RTW display is a plasma discharge type display. Studer and ward beck use them in their audio sound board consoles, and they are not cheap!

[@nutsoap5280]

The high pitched white noise of old crt monitor that brings back my childhood memories......!

[@ggonzale69]

How many people tried to wipe the dust off of their laptop screens when the mini analyzer was first displayed? 😜

[@VK3NFI]

guilty

[@fena0701]

I did hahahaha

[@rich1668]

Yep

[@mennio100]

That dust has bothered me so much 😂

[@vacuumelite2065]

I actually went to the kitchen to get a cloth. :-(

[@zulumax1]

My Favorite is the Realistic APM-200 I have had mine for decades! Peak and RMS Audio Power Meter

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

The tiny metallic Spectrum analyzer clock is perfect to put in a car, to see the time easily but also enjoy the music better.

[@samcopus1]

That's a really excellent point as it would work well in my cars burnt out clock and ironically for this channel, it would work well as a bright date and time for a dashcam, but is the best time to take in a spectrum analyzer while driving? Sounds like a good way to crash to me, lol

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

@@samcopus1 just Set IT to manual mode and just turn the spectrum analyser mode on when you're parked.

[@robertbilling6266]

I've designed broadcast equipment using VFDs. Firstly that one is probably a special. The manufacturer has taken a standard VFD and put two colour phosphors in for one ccustomer. Secondly as flat panels got better a lot of manufacturers stopped doing bigger VFDs. We had to redesign one product to use LEDs.

[@johnstuckaiii]

@Techmoan #Techmoan Love to see and lovely to see such a beautiful WM-D6 siting there. Those really are such wonderful creatures. I had a few experiences with those and owned a WM-D3 myself for years that I adored; well more loved and cherished and used the stink out of it for years. Those record in both Dolby B and C selectably, correct?

[@adaw2d3222]

The RTW device was lovely.

[@televisionandcheese]

That tiny one has a perfect use case in a car, mounted in the dashboard perhaps, the size is perfect to go alongside a head unit

[@manicsorceress2181]

Thanks for the countdown. I barely managed to close the browser before the puppets startet. Phew!

[@memberberry6177]

Yeah! Puppets!! Love the video. That 2nd one is awesome, but I hope they make a bigger one of it

[@td4dotnet]

I like the second unit, seems like it would come in handy for a Raspberry Pi SDR setup.

[@thedarkknight1971]

Always excellent videos, and some tech you have shown have taken me back to my past hahaha. I remember watching your last VU meter video (just watched it again to remind me), I love these kinds of displays (though I am a bit of a traditionalist, I like the vertical bar type starting with mostly green, to a couple of yellow/amber then tops out to a couple of red LEDs as I experienced on my father's old Technics and Sony stacking systems when I was a kid). I even bought a t-shirt once (yeah they did t-shirtsnwith a simple 5 bar type, however I found it was like one of your earlier types - volume driven. Keep up the good work, I love music and these reviews are really interesting. 😎 Note the small silver box one, I guess, if someone was somewhat flush lol, could buy two and slit the audio input to a left and right for each box respectively? I look forward to part 3 (maybe a part 4? How many of these things have you got? Haha)