I can't imagine what the purpose of a VU meter is, on a power amp. Watt meters, yes, but VU? I was brought up on VU meters on the mixing desks. They are totally natural to me if they are driven and calibrated correctly with a -6db lag. When Philips introduced their "light beam meters" they were a revelation but difficult to get used to. They comprised a very tiny coil to which was attached a very small and lightweight surface-silvered mirror (I mean tiny - maybe 3mm square.) The mirror reflected the beam from an optically focussed light source onto the back of a frosted glass oriented vertically, which was marked with the sound level decibel calibration marks. From -60 to 0db to +6db. Between zero and +3db the glass was orange and between +3db and +6db it was red. This was in the mid 1980's. There was a switch marked "VU Levels / Peak Levels" which, in the VU position applied a -6db weighting so that the indicated levels equated to what a VU meter would show. Another 15 years down the line and meters became LEDs arranged in a vertical column. No moving parts at all.
GrahamS - It's not what you hear that counts, it's what you think you hear........
Present Kit: NAD 326BEE, NAD C515BEE CD player, JVC QL-7 DD turntable, JVC Tonearm, Shure M97Ve, Audio Technica AT95EX, Pickering V15, JVC Z1E, Wharfedale Diamond 230s, Visual Rio interconnects and My Ears.