[BC] Equipment Hall Of Fame

[PeterH5322]

>As a lab exercise, one instructor had the class measure and plot the
>frequency response of an 260 and a digital meter (fluke, but I don't
>remember the model).  The 260 was flat out past 20kHz, the digital meter
>response didn't go past 1 kHz.  I would never use a digital meter on
>anything but 60 Hz circuits unless I had measured the frequency response.

Although I previously nominated the Weston Model 30 VU meter, I'll now 
add my nomination for the Simpson 142 VU meter.

The 142 is as close to a Weston as one can get in an affordable package, 
and it DOES use a copper oxide rectifier, which the VU meter standard 
mandates.

What sets the 142 apart is its frequency response.

It is used to set the erase current and the record bias current in Ampex 
351s, and these have a several hundred kHz bias, so the meter's response 
goes out that far.

Alas, the copper oxide rectifier adds some distortion to the output, so 
most knowledgeable operators disable the meter when in reproduce mode.

I agree that DVMs generally have poor frequency response. But, the best 
of them ARE "true RMS", and this characteristic is essential in certain 
applications.