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Audio RMS volt/level meter?

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Hal Bissinger/COMSYSTEC:
I'm just browsing the latest issue of Sound and Commununications and an article "What's in Your Test Kit". Under essential basic test gear the author lists an audio RMS volt/level meter with a minimum 20Khz bandwidth, calibrated in volts, dBU and dBV also having various time weightings- slow/fast/peak. I find that interesting. Does such a thing exist? Closest that I'm familiar with is the NTI XL2 but that only displays voltage I believe.

-Hal

Ivan Beaver:
It is really handy to have an old fashioned ANALOG meter to measure music type signals.

Much easier to "average".

The old Hewlett Packard 400 meters are really good for that.  Large scale-accurate to well past the audio range-can measure very small to large (300V) volts.  THey don't have any weighting scales on them-just flat.

You can get them pretty cheap (at least as compared to what they cost new)on Ebay.

Rob Timmerman:
Many of the higher-end Fluke DMMs will do this (except for the varying time ranges, I believe)

John Roberts {JR}:
Hal Bissinger/COMSYSTEC wrote on Thu, 23 December 2010 00:11
I'm just browsing the latest issue of Sound and Commununications and an article "What's in Your Test Kit". Under essential basic test gear the author lists an audio RMS volt/level meter with a minimum 20Khz bandwidth, calibrated in volts, dBU and dBV also having various time weightings- slow/fast/peak. I find that interesting. Does such a thing exist? Closest that I'm familiar with is the NTI XL2 but that only displays voltage I believe.

-Hal

and they want ice water in hell...  

I am not convinced that RMS is really necessary. Many a system was successfully debugged using a Simpson 260, but you you need to understand the limitations of your equipment.  There have been several models of premium (Fluke) hand held VOM with RMS and decent audio bandwidth available for a long time.

I haven't seen any with all of the features you listed but there may be one somewhere. Sounds like a dedicated audio test unit. Could be built into one of those hand held scopes.

JR

Tom Young:
Hal-

Although I have not yet used this function on my XL2, on page 92 of the current manual it clearly states that the XL2 "measures the absolute level of the input signal. The units dBu, dBV, V and dBSPL are selectable."  It simultaneously displays the THD, frequency and weighting curve applied.

I'll try this over the holidays and report back.

BTW - the XL2 manual is not only printed at an inconvenient size (aprox half 8-1/2" x 11"), it is also not thorough nor as well-written as I would have liked.

But overall I am very happy with this tester. They continually post new firmware versions (but not too often) with small improvements as the need arises.

HTH-

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