Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Weirdest or stupidest question ever??

Nothing stupid about it. It is fun to watch those needles move. I have an old Carver m400 cube amp that has LED lights for left and right channels and I used to love to watch them bounce up and down. I have thought many times of getting some M80's to hook up to it just for the view and of course the sound. It is actually stable to 2 ohms according to the manual. 250 watt per channel into 4 ohms. Although it is from 1983, it still works like the day I got it. Perhaps M80's are in my near future.

I love watching the meters and have an old Sansui reciever hooked up in the basement that feeds my need.

Totally forgot about the Technics! Nice design. I still have a big old Yamaha stereo power amp with vertical peak-reading LCD meters. They were fun to watch as well but never had quite the appeal of the analog meters.

Regards,

Should be easy to build as a external box? It's essentially a series of current meters. Could just package 7-8 of them in a silver casing and call it the "Nostalgia Mk. II".

If you have an Onkyo receiver, it could also be built using a thermometer.

Hi,

Those with very long memories may recall that back in the late '60s or early '70s, Radio Shack actually sold an accessory box with a pair of analog meters that you inserted between the speaker outputs of the stereo receiver or amp and the speakers. Fun to watch, but not lighted.

Loved your comment on using a thermometer for those new Onkyos!

Regards,

You could also do it on our old H/Ks, Alan...

I have a stack of 3 Yamaha M80s with their pulsing red vertical digital display power meters and a M504 with big VU meters and swinging needles on top.

But, wouldnt a stack of 4 of these look just great?



A stack of 4 Technics with huge VU meters would be like Forbidden planet's Krell power meters going crazy when Dr. Morbius dreamed his monster dreams.

Thank you all for making me feel normal.

Alan, I saw the onkyo amp you mentioned, its way out of my budget. Could you guys please make a 2 channel amp version of the A1400 and have analog meters on the front...

Here is a more precise question; given I am using Denon 3808 to run the 2 M80s, how much power rating should a 2 channel amp have to add to the power already existing in the denon.

I saw an amp on ebay with the analog display but it was rated at only 40 watts per channel, which is way less than the denon.
Toshiba amp on Ebay

I will see if anything is available from Technics

Sam

I think how it would work is that you would use the Denon as a preamp, and the two channel amp as amplification for ... well, 2 channels. You cannot use both the inboard and outboard amps together on the same channels. Bad things would happen.

As to the normal thing, well, you're feeling normal while in the company of audiophiles. This probably would not pass as normal in the context of the larger community.

As far as I'm concerned, huge power meters are WAY cool.

A nice Onkyo Integra M504 might be in your budget range. Huge VU meters, though not as drop dead beautiful as the Technics.

Sam,

I use the 3808 as pre/pro. Well, five channels anyway. I am using a Power5 amp for all but the surround backs. The 3808 drives the SB’s. The Power5 is a discontinued 200X5 amp that NHT was making. They also made a 2X200 amp. The P-5 is sold out, but you can still get the P-2 for a very reasonable price. Sorry, no meters, but I have been pleased with the amp itself.

Do you need it with the 3808 though….. Well no, not really. When I fired up the P-5 for the first time I just couldn’t tell a difference is SQ across the board. Where the amp did demonstrate an audible difference is some of the dynamic peaks like gun fights. It will play louder, but the 3808 already drives the M80’s too friggin loud, so that’s a mute point.

But if you heart’s set on external amplification for the mains, I would give the P-2 serous consideration. The NHT amps use BW ice power modules. I bought mine from Listen Up. It looks like they still have some P2’s on clearance.

http://www.listenup.com/lu/merchant.mvc?...02&Store_Code=l