Bargains on ebay? (Part 2)

[Barry]

Meters have never appealed to me. They don't improve sound quality and analogue ones are too slow to give real time info.

At last - someone else who is not keen on meters, apart from those used on recording equipment. They are distracting and serve no obvious purpose on power amplifiers. McIntosh are obsessed with them, to the extent of fitting one on their turntable to display the rpm.

Regarding the ballistics of analogue meters, VU meters are, as you say, too slow, but PPM (peak programme meters) as developed and used by the BBC have a fast rise time with a slower fall-back time are much better.

[Pigmy Pony]

Are these meters ok? This was my first cassette deck, from 1982. Distracting, maybe. But I really didn't mind.

[Barry]

My first cassette deck (a Sony) had similar bar-graph recording level indicators. They had fast ballistics on rise, but on fall-back the LED segment denoting the highest level would remain lit for a second or two. When I first used the machine and saw a segment being 'left behind', I though something was wrong with the display.

The same style bar-graph recording indicators are used on both my Nakamichi machines, save that they are vertically orientated.