ET30 VU Meter Amplifier Speaker Selector Switch Box, 2 in 2 Out Vintage Switcher, with DB Panel Display & Remote Control, for Stereo Class A, B, AB, D, Tube Amps Home Audio Component

I bought this not as a switch box (although it does that well) - I bought it for the meters. I love old vintage meters on audio gear, but my current mancave setup is devoid of such. This one attracted me as I do not have to hook up any cables to get the meters dancing - the built-in mic picks up the sound just fine. I find the meters generally follow the bass and drums, which is perfect.The unit feels solid - nice and heavy and made of metal. There are dials/controls for bounce strength, and you can change the colors, which is awesome. Nice remote too.

I have no complaints, other than the blue color doesn't appear very blue, due to the yellow plates behind the VU meters.Other than that, this works well, and seems solid.The unit will still allow sound to be passed through when it's turned off, and that's something important I didn't see mentioned in the description, or even in the manual, so I thought it was worth mentioning here. For reference, when the unit is plugged in but is "turned off" with no meter activity, and no lights on, sound from my "B" amp posts gets through to my "2" speaker posts. I haven't messed around with different configurations or unplugging the unit. This was important to me, because I also run my TV audio through my amp/speaker setup, and I didn't want to have to turn on one more thing just to watch TV. I can just turn this on when I want to listen to music with the bouncing meters or switch over to other speakers.The meters are very configurable on swing range and sensitivity, meaning they're not going to be accurate, but what can you expect? This also means that the meter knob settings for one amp/speaker combo probably won't work well for another setup, which could be annoying, I guess.As far as the sound quality goes, I certainly can't hear any distortion or coloring of the sound that goes through this. That makes sense, since you can find a review of this unit at AudioScienceReview dot com that proves this is a transparent unit.Honestly, I got this because I wanted physically bouncing meters in my setup. Probably not worth the money just for that, but who asked you? It's my money and I can waste it however I want. It's definitely a solid A/B switcher, though, so if you're into that kind of thing, then it's definitely worth the asking price.

Got this to allow me to switch remotely between my solid state monoblock amp and a tube amp. The switching works well and does not degrade the sound or add any noise that I can hear. I had a manual switch that I was happy with, but the ability to switch remotely from my listening chair in order to A/B the sound from two amps made the ET30 worth getting. And I have to admit that the VU meters add an old-school vibe that I enjoy.One caveat: The manual clearly states that the maximum power input supported is 300W at 2 Ohms, or 200W at 4 ohms. There is no maximum power figure given for 8 ohms, but I would guess it's on the order of 100W. My solid state monoblock amps are rated at 700W at 4 ohms. Although the switching and output still work fine, the VU meters cannot handle the higher load. They twitch slightly, but don't reflect the input signal. At first, I though the unit might be faulty, but since the VU meters work fine with my low powered tube amp, I realized (after reading the manual, duh) that the VU meters are simply overloaded with the higher signal. My solution is to switch to MIC mode when using my monoblocks, so that the VU meters display the ambient sound picked up from the speakers. This works fine. Alternatively, since the unit passes a signal even when switched off, I can just leave the unit off when using the monoblocks. Overall, I'm happy with the purchase.

It was actually a little bigger than I expected, which was a good thing. So far, it works excellently. It's nice to be able to adjust the meter sensitivity. And even nicer to be able to select the color of the meters! I have read some reviews that criticize the blue lighting, but I think they were overly harsh. It isn't as bright as some of the other colors, but it wasn't as bad as some reviews painted it. The build quality is sturdy and well fit. Very happy.

The media could not be loaded. This is exactly what I was looking for. Nice looking analog VU Meters for my digital set up. The build quality seems good, and you can change the color to suit your taste. I initially used it as a switcher to compare two different amps and speakers, and once I found the setup that I liked, it just became part of the chain in my main 2 channel system. It’s nice and relaxing to me to stare at the meters during night listening.

Unit works well, however no option to run both speakers A and B from choice of either amplifier. In other words, if you have four speakers- not uncommon- you can only choose one set of speakers at a time. For me, this is a deal breaker. Unfortunately had to return because of lack of functionality.

So - the "VU Meters" are mostly for show... but here's my take on them - coming from a semi-pro AV perspective. I ran sound at church for years - and you can apply the same concepts here. Once installed, pick the loudest song you would typically listen to and play it at the loudest volume you would typically listen to.. then adjust the meter settings so that they swing through their full range... Adjust so that the loudest passages are at "0" and just dipping a bit into the red zone.. verify the swing and sensitivty still captures the quietest passages as well... it takes a little bit of tweaking, but that will give you a visual "readout" of your room volume levels. Again - its not a super accurate tool, but this gives you a bit of a reference v.s. just random settings.The only negative I can point out is the display color settings don't have much in the way of "blue"... best I can get is a green / teal... so no "fake Macintosh" meters.. lol.