If I had to guess, I'd put the percentage of audiophiles that openly or secretly love VU meters at around a solid 80%.
McIntosh, anyone?
VU stands for Volume Units and as we read in yesterday's post, they are measured in decibels or dB.
They started appearing on equipment at a time when a new technology had come into the world of consumer electronics: tape recorders.
For most of the early days of HiFi there was no such thing as a consumer tape recorder like a good reel-to-reel or cassette deck. Audiophiles back then had to make do with radio tuners and vinyl records. And then it all changed.
Best I remember it was the late 1960s and 70s when Phillips and then Sony and Nakamichi flooded the market with cassette machines. Everyone with a few bucks and a HiFi system had one.
And what was the one thing really essential on that machine? The VU meter. Jam those volume needles into the red and your recording was ruined.
But, more than necessary for recording, they made the piece of stereo equipment come alive. VU meters breathed life into equipment and we could watch a kind of animation of the sound as music played. Before long, they moved away from being necessary on tape recorders to being decorative and enticing on stereo equipment of all kinds. Check out the Phase Linear 400 from Bob Carver.
He was not alone. From Audio Research to just about everyone else of importance back then, VU meters adorned the front panels.
Today (and even back then) they are nothing but ornamental, though the same has always been true of chrome bumpers and wood trim in cars.
Personally I am not a fan as it distracts me from the performance. But, that's me.
You?
