Products DB Display MKII DJ Mixer

Unit works well but.. Supplied AC adapter is only 5V, a higher 12V voltage adapter is strongly recommended as to provide better input/dynamic sensitivity for the LEDs. Biggest negative is that the unit has NO "input muting circuit" during the power ON cycle, so there is a loud thump through the loudspeakers. This thump is very loud and can cause major loudspeaker driver damage. Extreme caution is required to make sure the system volume control is set to its minimum during the power ON cycle.

From Gerard Stroh**** These Audio VU Led Rack Meters Look and Work Nice and Make My Audio System Look Nice and Makes A Good Audio Show Too****

For the longest time all I had to do is a google search to find a db / vu meter like this. Never have I seen this in a Guitar Center or I would have seen it and bought it 15 years ago. lol. It is old tech as far as the LED's from the 70's. However it does everything it is suppose to do. I have it used to monitor the signal feeding my high power amplifiers for my bass sub section. It is accurate and works great once you set your sensitivity to your signal optimum and you won't PEAK again now it's big in your face! I also used it to film my songs / beats playing through this and then inserting the video of the meter reading and lights moving to actually place in my videos to songs so now when people say they don't hear any bass because they are on their silly cell phone speakers weak... I say you see that light moving in the video?.... That's the bass you cannot hear on your weak phone speaker. lol

I bought it not for mount in the rack, I cut holders from both sides and it has become to 17.4" width, which is just slightly wider than my 17.1" width Onkyo TX-8255 Stereo Receiver This dB display implemented at the LM3915 Dot/Bar Display Driver - Texas Instrument chip. Pros: 1) Nice colors of LEDs 2) Relatively compact size and lightweight - body made of plastic. This is very important for foreign buyers (like I am) because permits us to save money for shipping from the USA. 3) Optimally chosen attack and release time. Cons: 1) Amplitude characteristic is not quite logarithmic, it's something middle between logarithmic and linear. Besides the dynamic range of dB display leaves something to be desired. What does it mean? While displaying audio signal with very high dynamic range (for example classical music) at the quiet part of music no one LEDs is lighted - even first pair -57db of LEDs. (Implied that input level was adjusted properly and the dB display shows 0db while the maximum peak of the input signal) 2) In the bar mode brightness of LEDs is changing depending on input level - slightly (about 20%) decreases at the peak of input signal. This is not a fault of a power adapter, because this device has an internal voltage stabilizer at L7809 chip. (I have measured output voltage of L7809 chip on the printed circuit board and it's constantly +9V as it must be - please see customer images), so perhaps this is a feature of LM3915 chip. All in all, it's a good device and I'd recommend it for most of the buyers. Sorry for my bad English Update: 19.01.2016 comparison American Audio (AA) Vs. Technical Pro DBPS30 Technical Pro DBPS30 1U Rack Mount dB Display with 8 Outlet Power Supply POWER SUPPLY: AA - conventional type, only 120V compatibility (through external AC to DC adapter); DBPS30 - integrated Switch-Mode PSU 110-240V compatibility. VIEWING ANGLE of each LEDs: AA - wide-angle, the beam is smooth and homogeneous; DBPS30 - angle is slightly lower, however, the beam has a strongly marked maximum in the area about +/-15 degrees relatively central axis. COLORS: AA - dimly with moderate saturation; DBPS30 - bright and high saturation. CASE: AA - plastic; DBPS30 - metallic. NUMBER of LEDs in each channel: AA - 40 (duplicated); DBPS30 -28 Which one to buy - you pick!

This looks great - good LED eye candy. Not super accurate, but then again, it's not a laboratory instrument. I bought two of them, and they do the basic job I need them for - an audio monitor in a computer room, and on my main sound system. The only thing I would improve on (as an engineer) is to use a beefier power supply. When running in "bar" mode, with all or most of the LEDs lit, it becomes a strain on the power supply and dims them all a bit. I notice those things - not a big deal to most people, I'm sure. Been running them 24/7 for a while now - no problems. One other note: There is a piece of paper included that basically says "don't use the line out jacks to feed an amplifier". Upon further investigation, I found that it is perfectly OK to do this. In fact, the "Line IN" and Line OUT" connections are internally connected, which means that it is a straight pass-through. You can even connect the IN / OUT backwards and it will still work just fine. No reason for that message on the paper.

This Display is exactly what the doctor ordered. The Gemini DRP-1 digital recorder has such a tiny tiny TINY display that its VU levels are next to useless. HOWEVER... with this display connected to the outputs, it can be calibrated to give exact level readings and guarantee a good signal level is being sent to the DAC inside the recorder. Anyone familiar with digital recording knows that, unlike analog recording, there is less distortion as the levels approach saturation, and more distortion with small levels, as there are fewer bits to carry the information, so, get your levels hot, but not too hot. Adjusting for an average level indicating around -9 is good headroom for any unexpected peaks. If you are running your signal through a compressor, that's even better. Dynamic range is important, but not at the expense of distortion. This display gives me a handle on the levels and as long as the calibration stays true (no knob turning) all is well in digi-land.

DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT. It's garbage. It's a poorly designed toy at best and overall, an utter waste of money. I wasn't expecting this to be great, but I also wasn't expecting it to be this terrible. I was just looking for something that would give me a ballpark audio level display. I guess, in a way, it does that... but it's a BIG ballpark and while I'm on the field, this device is in the parking lot. I had seen bad reviews for this, but I assumed that many of them were user error. They were not. The other bad reviews are accurate. You will see many of my sentiments echoed in other reviews. I initially thought that my unit was defective. Sending audio levels that are within normal ranges didn't register so much as a blip. I tried running a line level signal via XLR as well as RCA. Neither made a difference as to the accuracy or sensitivity of the unit. After seeing numerous other reviews of this product, I am confident in saying that I did not receive a defective product, this is just a BAD product. The audio sensitivity is so low that even after cranking the channel and master volumes on my audio interface as far as they would go (I was redlining/clipping; outputting at +18db gain above zero) the lights never went above halfway. The sensitivity pots were turned all the way up. Why on earth would you want to turn them down? Doing that makes this barely register a signal even at LOUD volumes. The accuracy of the signal level is nonexistent. The trim pots are also extremely coarse in their adjustment. There is no way to dial this in to a degree that would make it useful in any studio scenario. If you just want something to entertain your drunken friends with blinky lights that have no real relevance to actual audio levels, sure, go ahead and pick one of these up used or in an online auction for $30, but certainly not more than that. If you actually want a useful audio tool, find something else.

100% out from my computer was 100% of the display. Exactly what I needed.