a few months ago i was ordering some
reel to reel tape from my usual supplier
thumann.de
and i noticed on the website there they
had available to pre-order
a new spectrum analyzer type device it
was uh not
badly priced either 79 pounds i think
plus postage
and it's a recommendable one it's more
for entertainment purposes though than
professional use you wouldn't calibrate
all your equipment off this it's more
for
visual flair if you popped it in a rack
of equipment so i thought it was worth
ordering one in it came i think just
after christmas i haven't opened it yet
so we can
have a look at that together now while
looking at this it might also be worth
me just
getting another one out of the box i got
a while ago and i meant to include it
one of those
roundups of different visual spectrum
analyzer decibel meter
uh loudness meter type things and forgot
completely all about it it's just been
sat on the shelf
you'll see these around quite a lot just
rows of leds
um this cost about half the price of the
other one but i've got to say that one
looks pretty excited this one doesn't
look that interesting
so maybe we'll just have a quick look at
this but i think the main event is gonna
be this one so
uh without any further ado and i've said
that far too many times in videos but
i've said it now it's already happened
so i can't go back
let's have a look at this one now it
should be no surprise that a video about
devices that flashlights will contain
flashing lights
but yeah there's going to be a bit of
that going on now this being a device
that sold in germany it came supplied
with a standard iec
c13 power lead that's terminated in a
shuco
plug but thomann we're kind enough to
throw in a fused adapter for that but
i'm not going to use that i'll just
substitute the whole lead for a uk one
i've got lying around
now there are rubber feet on the base
and you know don't remove those if you
were going to rack mount this
and the cases as you'd expect made out
of metal
the front is dominated by the wide 31
column display
and around about you can choose between
xlr or
rca sockets with the inputs being on the
left hand side and the outputs on the
right
should mention it's also multi-voltage
from 100 to 240 volts 50
or 60 hertz and i don't if you notice
but the front is covered with a
protective film so you know what we're
going to have to do now
[Music]
sorry about that this never happens let
me have another go
[Music]
there are a couple of controls for the
display on the right hand side well
over on the left there's a power switch
now i'm going to send the
output from this off to my powered
speakers
and the input i'm going to connect up to
the headphone output
of my digital walkman and let's see what
it does
[Music]
so
the display is really quite mesmerizing
i think that's down to the number of
columns you're 31 columns
you don't tend to get that many on your
average hi-fi spectrum
analyzer now while i twiddle these knobs
just to show you what effect they have
on the display notice when i turn the
brightness down it looks like it's
flickering
that's not the case to the naked eye
it's just something that comes through
on the camera
also looks a little bit bluey there at
the bottom that's more what it does look
like so you've got green at the bottom
and then you've got one red segment at
the top there's a total of 12
segments in each column i'm running
through a frequency sweep here
and that reveals that there's no fakery
going on at all each column does reflect
a different frequency
and that's indicated by the legend
that's printed at the bottom of the
column
and feeding in my three kilohertz test
tone the one i use for measuring
wow and flutter does light up the
nearest appropriate
column so it all looks pretty much good
as far as accuracy goes
and as far as entertainment value goes
well i've got no complaints there
[Music]
either
[Music]
just to give you an idea as to what it
would look like in your average ordinary
hi-fi here it is down towards the bottom
left
i don't know if it's just me but it is
reminiscent well i think so of a
roaring fireplace a green one one that's
digital yeah probably just me
the rack mounting is on the case do make
it wider than most hi-fi components
though
so it might be difficult to fit into
some cabinets
anyway let's move on now and have a look
at the other display
this is a decibel display the rack
mounting ears are optional on this one
and there are no feet on the bottom
again it's in a metal case it seems a
very solid construction
there are two rows of 40 leds on the
front and around the back it's a similar
story to the other one with rca
or xlr inputs and outputs this one's
powered via 5 volts 500 milliamps which
is delivered by a barrel plug
a euro plug usb power adapter was
supplied and again thomann provided a uk
adapter for that one
but i'll just plug this into one of my
usb adapters now i'm going to wire it up
in the same way as the other one with
the output going after the speakers the
input coming from that walkman there's a
demo button on the back of here though
so i'm going to press that after turning
it on to see what it does
and it just does these chasing lights
across the front now over on the right
hand side there's a switch to choose
between
two different modes two different types
of display but it doesn't have any
bearing on this demo mode
so to find out what this does we're
gonna have to play some music through it
[Music]
each of the two rows of 40 leds consist
of
20 green leds 10 yellow and 10 red
but note that they're illuminated in
pairs so
each row can display 20 different values
which are separated
by those white vertical lines that you
can see now next to the switch on the
right there are two parts that affect
the response
and you can see the results of adjusting
the top one here
now i've shot this video in 4k 30 and 30
frames a second might not be doing these
displays
justice so if you prefer to see a 1080p
60 demonstration i've uploaded one
separately
and it's accessible via the link in the
description
the pop-up at the top right of the
screen and the card at the end of the
video
but with that said let's have a quick
look at both of these devices
daisy chained together
[Music]
one very important feature of both these
devices is that they pass the audio
through
passively so if you turn them off the
audio
still gets rooted through and of course
unplugging the power
also has no effect the audio just
carries on the reason that that's
important
is that you don't always have to turn on
your flashing lights every time you want
to listen to music
these things can just sit in your rack
of equipment until you're feeling a bit
flashy so if you're interested just to
reiterate the prices i bought mine from
thurman.de this is not affiliated
you'll find that led parameter thing on
ebay as well but it's usually more
expensive there than it is at thurman
even accounting for any tax or postage
costs but as far as the spectrum
analyzer goes i've only seen
that for sale on their website and there
does seem to be quite a bit of a wait
for stock
i think it's probably the same bloke
putting these together who's making the
ps5s
but there you go that's more frivolous
nonsense that no one really needs but
putting mundane reality to one side i
think that these complement each other
quite well
and i'm particularly impressed with that
spectrum analyzer
excluding any individual hobbyist
devices
this is by far the most eye-catching one
i've seen
that's being put together today by a
proper company
anyway that's it for the moment as
always thanks for watching
[Music]
you