My DIY Audio Scope so far (will update)

[AYanguas]

When will the 11.1 version for Atmos be ready? )

Hmm, it'd have to be three dimensional, or better yet, spherical to show the height speakers...

Got it! Just wire light bulbs to your speaker terminals and you'd have a full scale Atmos audio scope and blinking disco room Kidding... !

I built a 13 Channel VUmeter, and it helps with its lights to the Phillips HUE LED strip lights that I have in the Home Cinema room for disco parties.

You can have a look here at these avsforum posts:

13 Channel VUMeter finished
Go to the end of the post, after all pictures, to see the video with the VUmeters in action (and don't forget to unmute the sound to listen also to the video)

13 Channel VUmeter Documentation
This is my whole documentation set, if you are curious and want to know how I did it. Or get ideas to build something similar.

 

[doity]

It took me awhile to figure out how it would look. I thought that you originally were going to use the bar graph meters? I couldn’t figure out what those raised green dots were for until I realized that they were the lights. I like this design a lot better and I gotta say congrats on a great design.

I can’t wait to see the finished product. What is the approximate dimension of the display board? I want one, even though I don’t really need it . Keep us updated and post a video as soon as it is ready please.

 

[audiomaster]

Actually, when I was working for a major theme park we distributed BGM at 140 volts. We used 3w 120 volt bulbs across the lines to show signal present! Worked great. I guess you could use LEDs now.

 

[Wurly1]

I built a 13 Channel VUmeter, and it helps with its lights to the Phillips HUE LED strip lights that I have in the Home Cinema room for disco parties.

You can have a look here at these avsforum posts:

13 Channel VUMeter finished
Go to the end of the post, after all pictures, to see the video with the VUmeters in action (and don't forget to unmute the sound to listen also to the video)

13 Channel VUmeter Documentation
This is my whole documentation set, if you are curious and want to know how I did it. Or get ideas to build something similar.

This is a great project congrats!
A lot of work and detailed informations. 13 channels wow!
Unfortunately i can't find the video of it in action.

Edit: I finally was able to view your creation in action. Really nice!

 

[Wurly1]

It took me awhile to figure out how it would look. I thought that you originally were going to use the bar graph meters? I couldn’t figure out what those raised green dots were for until I realized that they were the lights. I like this design a lot better and I gotta say congrats on a great design.

I can’t wait to see the finished product. What is the approximate dimension of the display board? I want one, even though I don’t really need it . Keep us updated and post a video as soon as it is ready please.

The display board only is 160 mm wide and 130 mm tall.
I have made a 1st cabinet prototype (in fact it's the 11th one made on the cnc that got completed to satisfactory) I'm still waiting for some parts to complete the assembly and show it around.
Spoiler Alert! the facade is a standard 17 inches wide and the same hight of my pioneer home cinema amplifier but only 3.75 inches deep so it can also be placed on a small shelf above your system.

 

[Wurly1]

Hmm, it'd have to be three dimensional, or better yet, spherical to show the height speakers...

Got it! Just wire light bulbs to your speaker terminals and you'd have a full scale Atmos audio scope and blinking disco room Kidding... !

You can add dimensions using tricolour leds or creating a different kind of matrix. I have a few ideas to try in that regard.

 

[ProgRules]

I built a 13 Channel VUmeter, and it helps with its lights to the Phillips HUE LED strip lights that I have in the Home Cinema room for disco parties.

You can have a look here at these avsforum posts:

13 Channel VUMeter finished
Go to the end of the post, after all pictures, to see the video with the VUmeters in action (and don't forget to unmute the sound to listen also to the video)

13 Channel VUmeter Documentation
This is my whole documentation set, if you are curious and want to know how I did it. Or get ideas to build something similar.

That's really cool but hard for me to appreciate cuz I can't not focus on that poor air-deprived Denon! Doesn't that beast get really hot? Aren't you afraid you'll damage it? Or did you just do it temporarily to record the video?

 

[doity]

I built a 13 Channel VUmeter, and it helps with its lights to the Phillips HUE LED strip lights that I have in the Home Cinema room for disco parties.

You can have a look here at these avsforum posts:

13 Channel VUMeter finished
Go to the end of the post, after all pictures, to see the video with the VUmeters in action (and don't forget to unmute the sound to listen also to the video)

13 Channel VUmeter Documentation
This is my whole documentation set, if you are curious and want to know how I did it. Or get ideas to build something similar.

I like the design and it is a great looking piece but I don’t know. I think those lights would give me some kind of seizure after awhile or something if I looked at them too long. Would probably look great with the lights down and more of a background ambience thing but then you would have to string the cables here and there. Or if somehow the cabinet could fit those “Magic Eye” VU tubes and maybe put some kind of filter that would dim them down a notch. But those aren’t as accurate as a LED meters.......at least I wouldn’t think that they would be.

 

[AYanguas]

That's really cool but hard for me to appreciate cuz I can't not focus on that poor air-deprived Denon! Doesn't that beast get really hot? Aren't you afraid you'll damage it? Or did you just do it temporarily to record the video?

The Denon 8500 is fully ventilated. I put the AVR at the top of the custom made wooden rack. If you look closer to the pictures you will see that I have a cooling fan system on top of the Denon.

This is the definitive location, on top of the AC Infinity Cooling fan system for the AVR. I was very careful, in the initial Box design, not to go beyond the depth that covered the fan grills. So no air flow obstruction at all.

I keep the measured temperature always under 30 Celsius degrees with the programmed control of the fans, and they not run all the time and also to the lowest speed. So, I have a big margin for hotter summer. I have also an air conditioner at the Home Cinema room.

It's all under control

 

[AYanguas]

I like the design and it is a great looking piece but I don’t know. I think those lights would give me some kind of seizure after awhile or something if I looked at them too long. Would probably look great with the lights down and more of a background ambience thing but then you would have to string the cables here and there. Or if somehow the cabinet could fit those “Magic Eye” VU tubes and maybe put some kind of filter that would dim them down a notch. But those aren’t as accurate as a LED meters.......at least I wouldn’t think that they would be.

Well, they look correct for fun (disco party like) and also to "diagnose" the amount of sound content to the surrounds and tops/heights when listening surround music and testing upmixers. Verifying whether is 5.1 or 4.0, etc.
The video shows a display mode appearing from the center, which is perhaps, more dizzy when looking them too long. But I usually have them with the "standard" VUMeter of the bar growing from the bottom, which, for me, is really less dizzy and helps more to compare levels between the channels.

But, with a darkened room, when we watch movies at the Projector Screen, they shine a lot and distract and even annoy. In that case I just power them off. For this purpose, I included in the design some WI-FI relays switches to be operated (Power on/off) with Echo Alexa from the couch when watching Cinema.

 

[audiomaster]

If I did this, I would want each of the displays AT the speakers they were monitoring. I am wondering if there is a way to do this and power the led off the speaker signal without introducing distortion? Like bridging the speaker line? Or maybe a small battery box on each unit that powers the leds, but is turned on by a very small signal from the speaker line? So you don't need extra wires to each speaker. Although I did run 4 cond wire to each speaker in case I ever wanted to go two way system. I just have them paralleled now.
Might look cool if the lights were BEHIND the speakers lighting the wall or ceiling.

 

[ProgRules]

The Denon 8500 is fully ventilated. I put the AVR at the top of the custom made wooden rack. If you look closer to the pictures you will see that I have a cooling fan system on top of the Denon.

This is the definitive location, on top of the AC Infinity Cooling fan system for the AVR. I was very careful, in the initial Box design, not to go beyond the depth that covered the fan grills. So no air flow obstruction at all.

I keep the measured temperature always under 30 Celsius degrees with the programmed control of the fans, and they not run all the time and also to the lowest speed. So, I have a big margin for hotter summer. I have also an air conditioner at the Home Cinema room.

It's all under control

LOL Just showing my ignorance... Had no idea what that Infinity component was, but obviously wasn't thinking it could be a fan. D'oh!

Very much under control I see!

 

[Wurly1]

If I did this, I would want each of the displays AT the speakers they were monitoring. I am wondering if there is a way to do this and power the led off the speaker signal without introducing distortion? Like bridging the speaker line? Or maybe a small battery box on each unit that powers the leds, but is turned on by a very small signal from the speaker line? So you don't need extra wires to each speaker. Although I did run 4 cond wire to each speaker in case I ever wanted to go two way system. I just have them paralleled now.
Might look cool if the lights were BEHIND the speakers lighting the wall or ceiling.

Interesting question. it sure could be fun to see the signal coming directly from the source speaker during a DISCO party but i'm not sure if it would be adequate during a concert or a movie to turn your head around to look at speaker to check levels.

 

[Wurly1]

Easter preview!i hope youtube won't cut the sound from my sample
here my quad display in X-Sterero mode.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Easter preview!i hope youtube won't cut the sound from my sample
here my quad display in X-Sterero mode.

Eh, it says video is private. Sign in if the owner has granted access.

 

[Wurly1]

Here's another video of a 1974 recording of Tomita on CD-4 lp. This one is more spectacular as it display the "differential mode" of my quad display, which display only the louder channel or louder quadrant (quadrants are front, right, back and left).
Note: Opposite sides may occasionally appear on but it's because the eye is not fast enough (and my iPhone) to register fast shifting of the lights. This mode is helpful to balance all channels with a mono signal, with the exact same signal on all four channels, the display will not display anything.
At 3:27 in the video, i switch to normal 4 channels mode.
note:the sound your ear is not quadraphonic but the sound fed to the display is.

 

[Wurly1]

Eh, it says video is private. Sign in if the owner has granted access.

i will try to fix it

 

[Wurly1]

Eh, it says video is private. Sign in if the owner has granted access.

it should work now

 

[Sonik Wiz]

it should work now

Oh man that is incredible! Informative & hypnotic. This is the best solid state realization of a CRT quadscope I've ever seen. It's easy to do 4 (or more) ch level indicators but all those extra (bouncing ball) LED's shows what's going on in between. Congrats on a great project!

 

[Wurly1]

Oh man that is incredible! Informative & hypnotic. This is the best solid state realization of a CRT quadscope I've ever seen. It's easy to do 4 (or more) ch level indicators but all those extra (bouncing ball) LED's shows what's going on in between. Congrats on a great project!

Thank you Sonic Wiz, it's even better when it's live!