VR: are the meter adjustments passive?

[tragwag]

hey friends, I had to buy a replacement LED volume meter for my second VR and I'm having trouble getting it to sit perfectly level wise,
are the trim adjustments on the front just for the meter? or do these sorts of meters have any gain available?
I can't find documentation anywhere.

here's the replacement I picked up in case anyone needs one, the decay is much faster than the original
https://www.markertek.com/product/aa-dbdisplaymkii/amdj-american-audio-db-display-mkii-19-inch-metal-rack-mountable-led-db-level-display

thanks!

[tragwag]

here's the original one souri supplies
https://www.img-stageline.com/products/audio-tools/signal-processing/vu-800-sw/

[Soulbear]

here's the original one souri supplies
https://www.img-stageline.com/products/audio-tools/signal-processing/vu-800-sw/

The Stageline trimers are just for the sensitivity of the LEDs on the VU Meter depending on the Line levels IE Domestic vs Studio Line Levels.

Stageline VU-1.jpg

The Audio/LEDs are Buffered, so sensitivity adjustment should have no impact on Audio Quality, dunno if American Audio has the same "Internals"?? Guessing they both came out of the same factory in China at some time!!
Regards Soulbear

[tragwag]

awesome, thanks for confirming!
been a bit finicky so I wanted to be sure the meter had nothing to do with it

[Vinylfan]

After a very long break - during which I may have forgotten almost everything about the VR - I would now like to start cutting again. While looking for an answer to my question about the VU meter from IMG Stageline, I came across this discussion.

When I connect the headphones to the output of the VU meter, the LEDs show somet 20 dB (depending of the headphones) less level than when nothing is connected to the output.
Is thisnormal? The VU Meter should display the energy on the input side and not the consumption at the output. Many thanks for your support with my beginner's question

[tragwag]

After a very long break - during which I may have forgotten almost everything about the VR - I would now like to start cutting again. While looking for an answer to my question about the VU meter from IMG Stageline, I came across this discussion.

When I connect the headphones to the output of the VU meter, the LEDs show somet 20 dB (depending of the headphones) less level than when nothing is connected to the output.
Is thisnormal? The VU Meter should display the energy on the input side and not the consumption at the output. Many thanks for your support with my beginner's question

that's strange. what's the rest of your signal chain like?

[Sylvere]

hello,
got this one for my vr: https://www.thomann.de/fr/fredenstein_u70f.htm
really nice and accurate tool ! for sure better stuff than sw800.

When I connect the headphones to the output of the VU meter,

@Vinylfan:
sorry I miss understand: are u trying to plug directly your headphone from the output of the sw800 ?

[Vinylfan]

Thank you
@ tragwag:
the signal chain is standard VR setup without optimizer (at least I thought it is): source -> mixer -> main unit -> amp -> cutter head and a parallel stream source -> mixer - monitor switcher - VU meter -> headphones
@ Sylvere: yes, headphone is connected direct to the audio out of the vu-800-sw with a RCA chinch to 6.3 jack cable. Maybe I should use a headphone preamp?

[tragwag]

yeah hrm! I haven't connected anything to the output of the meter except RCA cables that go to the cutting amp.
you could just have a bad adapter? or something screwy with the monitor switcher?

to figure out if the meter is working correctly, take it out of the signal chain.
send a 1 khz tone directly to it from the source, then plug and unplug output cables or headphones to see what happens?

for what it's worth, a lot of folks (myself included) have done away with the Mixer and various parallel signal paths.
There's a lot of unbalanced connections going on there, you would have a cleaner signal path and lower noise with more direct connections.

I do this:
audio interface -> meter ->amp->cutterhead

with balanced connections (XLR or 1/4 TRS) where possible

[Sylvere]

example of wiring: here my synoptic for my vr cutting system 2024 !
hope it could help u.
syl

[Vinylfan]

to figure out if the meter is working correctly, take it out of the signal chain.
send a 1 khz tone directly to it from the source, then plug and unplug output cables or headphones to see what happens?

for what it's worth, a lot of folks (myself included) have done away with the Mixer and various parallel signal paths.

This is my issue: The display shows very different values depending on whether a headphone or something else is connected to the output.
In fact I discovered this VU meter issue when I was trying to set up the signal path without the mixer.
I will now try it with a different VU meter.

@ Sylvere: Thanks for sharing your setup. Looks very professional. This is inspiring even if my setup will l probably be much simpler.

[Sylvere]

probably the output section inside the sw800 should be in Parrallel mode with the input,
so if u plug your headphone directly in the output, the impedance doesn't match.
Try to plug another Vu meter (even on ur computer) in parallel.
Becarefull, set correctly the input on ur computer from +4dbu to -10dbV to be sure to read correctly !