Possible meter for 1176?

I've been having the hardest time finding a meter for my 1176. Everything is in and ready except for the meter. Getting a sifam here seems next to impossible (not to mention costly), so I've been looking at different options. I found an old Teac 4-track reel-to-reel at my local elec. repair shop that the guy is gonna part out. It's got 4 nice VU meters in it that would fit and look nicely in my 1176, but I want to make sure they'll work before I jump. Anyone have some words of wisdom on this? Will I need to make an extra circuit to make it work, or is it good to go right off? The model number is: 526003300.

I guess to make this easier, what do I need to know when selecting a meter for this project?

..feed it 775mVAC through a 3.6K resistor, and see if the needle sets around -4dB. If so, it's right. If not, check with recorder schematics to try to find out meter sensitivity and if they have the needed internal rectifiers..

Jakob E.

excellent. thanks, jakob. :grin:

Check ebay. I've purchased some very fine Dixson meters on there and used them for all six channels of my 1176s. They work flawlessly and were a lot cheaper than new meters.

Cheers,
--
Don

I've got a meter in and it's bouncy, but not sure if it works right. I found a schematic of the tape machine it's for, but the service manual doesn't give specs on the meter. It's an Akai B1914R for a 4000DS 4-track reel-to-reel. Anyone know about this or what I need to do or fabricate to get it to the right spec for my 1176?

bubba-

I have an original meter if you need it. When I installed it into an old 1176, I had the same problem, the needle would overshoot right and then bounce left and I had to trim one of the resistors in the meter amp- look on the rev e schem, I swapped R74 for a smaller value and got my meter to settle but in retrospect, I should have swapped R44, labeled "t&c"- I'd take that resistor out, put in a pot and see what you have to dial in to get the meter to settle. I remember taking that 2.7M resistor and replacing it with something much smaller and the problem went away for me entirely, but sounds exactly like what you are dealing with.

dave

Thanks, dave. I'll try that n see what happens. Also, pm me with details on your meter (how much $, etc.).

dave,

you said R44 should be swapped with a different value (depending on the trimmer state)? That's part of the ratio board circuit, right? Did you mean to say R74 as stated earlier in your post? Also, I don't have a 2.7M anywhere in the circuit. If it helps, I'm working with mnat's board, rev. H.

the resistor numbers I posted correspond to urei rev e schematic, compare those...

dave

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question regarding specs for the AL29....or more precisely the specs for a meter to fit right in to the G1176 design. What am I looking for?

I'm think about an alternative design for the faceplate, and maybe even squeezing the thing into a 1U rackcase...or maybe just something cheaper than Sifam. We'll see... I just need to know what to look for and I couldn't find any specs here or at Sifams website.

As pointed out on several occations, the 1176 needs a meter that reads 0dB when it's fed +4dBm through a 3.6K resistor..

Jakob E.

I'm sorry. I saw that in this thread already. I thought that was the way to determine whether an unspecified meter would fit the design. I didn't realise this qualified as a specification I could use in my search in online shops and manufactorers websites. My bad.

Noob question ahead ? could you use a meter that differs from the Sifam meters specs if you change the value of the 3,6 ohm resistor? I checked these much more moderately priced meters out.

Cheers,
Henrik

Hello Henrik,
The link t RS didn' work 4 me - is the circular Anders VU -200uA - I like the look of these and if they are good - would ike to use these also.

Sorry about the non working link.

The VU meter I was trying to link to is item no. 258-013 at RS Components. It's about one fourth of the price for the Sifam meters, so...

Cheers,
H

To put it mildly I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how to compare specs for different meters as they seem to be specified differently from brand to brand.

So I've sent a mail to Anders Electronics and asked if they have a meter that meets the specs for the Sifam meter that'll work with the G1176. Alas they haven't "found the time" to answer me yet.

I'm thinking that there must be someone who makes a meter that will fit the bill. At least with a bit of modification...

We'll see. :wink:

Hej Luny,
Sounds good, please report back if/when they reply.

Seriously though ? does one really need a meter? I mean, I don't think I ever set my compression or output levels by looking at a meter.

So if you'd want to build your G1176 without a meter, can you just skip those leads on the PCB?

CHeers,
Henrik

Hmmm...I'm not sure. I think it has been covered somewhere here. Maybe even in this thread. But there some adjusting that requires the meter, I think.

Anyways, I'd like to have the meter there, and if it can't be done any other way I'll just have to buy a Sifam meter. I like to have a precise meter to guide me when I want to achieve light compression. When I squash a signal I don't care what the meter says though. It's usually not moving from the right side of the scale until the end of the song anyway, so... :razz:

Also when I edit speaks for some applications, the client will sometimes ask for the voice to be compressed a certain way. That requires a quite accurate meter on a hardware compressor. So far I've done that digitally, but with a G1176 in the rack I'm gonna give that a go. :grin:

I will certainly keep you posted here!

Well, I haven't heard from Anders Electronic at all.

However, I have ordered that specific meter that you referred to, Henrik. The specs are very much like what I was recommended to try out today. a 200-250uA DC meter rectified with germanium diodes. That's exactly what that meter is, so I chanced it and ordered it. It should arrive tomorrow along with a Lundahl output trafo, toroid trafo, rack case, knobs and the four trimmers.

I'll report back immediately after testing it.

Once again, Jakob was the keymaster.:wink:

Be aware though that it IS a cheap meter and chances are that although the specs are correct it may not have the right "feel" to it. Have a look at the specs page for the audio level meters at Sifams website for an explanation. There's a section explaining how they have gone about making their meters "react" in a certain way. Jakob used the danish word for "ballistics" I'm not sure if it's the right term in english...

I'm expecting maybe a bit of erratic movement by the pointer or something, but we'll see tomorrow hopefully.

Ok, I'm almost done with my G1176. I'm just waiting for the frontplate. Otherwise it's completed and it sounds amazing.

(Does anyone else think that it's hard to believe that you built it yourself when the result is that you're sitting with gear that sounds so great?:shock: If anything is cool in the world, THAT is!!)

Ayways, that means that I have now found out if the Anders Electronics SU6 meter works. Well, I have yet do find out how precise it is but it does work. Out of the box it works in GR mode, but for it to work as a VU meter as well you will need to put a germanium diode bridge in front of it.

It doesn't have a screw for zeroing the meter though. I'll adjust my G1176 today and report back here about the results concerning the meter.