my answer is a VU is useful, but not critical. it is good to see what is going on with a signal, but for setting levels, the level on the pre is not really that important, it is the level at the recording device that you have to keep an eye on. With digital equipment, 0dB is not what it used to be.
But meters do look very pretty! Light and activity looks nice in a rack!

So I guess it depends on your budget, if you're really tight, get the non-VU and spend the change on another mic or some more cables, but if you can afford the extra, consider it like tinted windows on a car - some practical use but mainly because it looks cool!

mute_transports wrote: my answer is a VU is useful, but not critical. it is good to see what is going on with a signal, but for setting levels, the level on the pre is not really that important, it is the level at the recording device that you have to keep an eye on. With digital equipment, 0dB is not what it used to be.
But meters do look very pretty! Light and activity looks nice in a rack!

So I guess it depends on your budget, if you're really tight, get the non-VU and spend the change on another mic or some more cables, but if you can afford the extra, consider it like tinted windows on a car - some practical use but mainly because it looks cool!

Thanks. I got your point.
Is it possible for a preamp to be overloaded(e.g., gain/input level too high) and damaged without seeing the VU?

If I use it for live performance, do you think VU is important?
Thanks.

That ting has a lot of headroom, so unless you do something crazy, I don;'t think overloading is going to be a problem. When in doubt, the manufacturere does have a forum right here at RO. Check it out.

http://www.recording.org/forum-38.html

I use a VMP-4000 almost every day and I don't miss the meters at all ... I just watch the meters on the DAW or compressor while I record .... The only time I could think of that a meter would be nice is if I were to run the VMP into an EQ with no metering .... that would call for caution and to be sure to watch the overload lights on the EQ ...

Other pres like the GRMP2NV do have meters but thay also have input and output stages that may be dirven at different levels for effect ... so the meters are nice ...

i have the 2000e vu and it doesnt really have a point to it for me. you have to look at the recording program to see if its clipping. On my seb the vu hardly moves whilst the program is nearly clipping. (or am i recording something wrong?) :oops:

anyhow i dont think its worth the extra $$$$ for the vu.