the t.racks DBMeter

I bought this meter to monitor input signal levels while recording live sessions because my chosen audio interface lacks level controls and hardware meters on the rear inputs. This meter is fine for monitoring signal peaks to prevent clipping but don't expect to use it for anything accurate. If nothing else it'll work as blinking lights for the audience to marvel at.

The first thing I noticed after calibrating the 0 dB levels with pink noise and fiddling with the adjusters on the front was that the scale printed between the LEDs is nowhere near the truth. With the adjustments I use the scale starts at about -12 dB (where -54 dB is printed on the front) and the LED bar behaviour is linear, not logarithmic. The latter is what you'd expect in audio use.

The construction of the meter is good. The housing is metal and the connectors are screwed to the back panel to keep them from wiggling loose from the solder joints inside. The power supply provided is certified by TÜV.

Update: One star comes off from the rating as the left channel died right before a recording session when I had need for peak monitoring. The reason was that one of the XLR sockets wasn't properly seated on the circuit board before soldering and broke off the PCB traces during transit, which lead the left channel input being completely open. I could do the recording with just one channel monitored and diagnosed and repaired the meter afterwards.