Increase VU Meter Sensititvity?

It seems like you really need to be at a high volume before the VU meters start to work, on my 838 at least. Is there any way to increase their sensitivity, or to get them to react at lower volume levels?

Get schematics and find adjustment pots?

JVC 838 and many other boxes are designed like that. Leave it alone!
Tapes that are recorded well will respond better!

Just insert a blank tape and press Record, and adjust the Rec Level sliders until the meters move like you want. On that model you don't need to press Record + Play to accomplish that. Just Record.

Reli said:

Just insert a blank tape and press Record, and adjust the Rec Level sliders until the meters move like you want. On that model you don't need to press Record + Play to accomplish that. Just Record.

Click to expand...

I think he is referring to play back mode. I could be wrong!

True but he could also be talking about Tuner and Aux modes, because he says he needs to raise the volume to make the meters move. That's why I leave the Record key down in that situation. Then you can make the meters dance regardless of the volume level.

If there is a driver board for the meters with a vr pot to adjust the level.

Not that this applies to absolutely every boombox, but on every boombox schematic that I've seen, meter adjustment pots only exist on one channel, and the adjustment is merely intended to match the other channel. In other words, one channel is fixed, and the other channel is adjusted to match the level of the other fixed channel in order to compensate for any imbalance in the way the meters swing with a mono signal.

*clicks on 838 manual in Boomboxery library*
There's a meter pot on the amp board - VR104.

Oh, nice. Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I'm set

While I have the experts' ears, is there a simple way to wire the VU backlights so they're always on too?

I'll post a thread on my 838 restore when I'm done.