Passive VU meter with trim and term ination switch can be DIY'd
see my site

Same goes for a signal generator.
Even CD and MP3 players with a balance line drive make for good sources.
Simple DVM ... rms voltages are not perfect but close enough.
CRO .. 20 meg or better ... dual trace ... for audio
nothing short of 40/50 for video work.

PC based software is cool but not for fault finding. Great for plotting and printing response curves etc
GREAT for distortion testing. (FFT analysis)

Seriously,
most of the useful stuff can be DIY'd and things like the 20 meg CRO can be second hand or budget new
.... look for specials from both pro and enthusiast stores.

errr
dummy load for amps etc
small bench amp ...
signal tracer ... see DIY Factory
http://www.diyfactory.com/data/mbsignaltracing.htm

Here's a list of low-cost, pc-based software that I put together for my field engineers. I would supplement it with a "real" hardware scope, like a used Tek 2430.

Tascam USB-122. (http://www.tascam.com/Products/US-122.html)

- USB I/O hardware.
- Powered from laptop.
- Microphone and line inputs.
- Phantom power.
- Flat, low distortion response. .
- Requires some attention to set-up to achieve best results.

Behringer ECM-8000. (http://www.behringer.com/ECM8000/)

- Measurement microphone.
- Flat response and low distortion up to ~140 dB.
- May be calibrated for very high accuracy.

TrueRTA. (http://)

- Software RTA.
- 1-octave to 1/24th-octave resolution.
- Basic signal generation choices.
- Basic chirp for circuit testing.
- Very good display, comparison, smoothing, averaging options.

Sample Champ Pro. (http://www.purebits.com)

- Full 2-ch acoustic analysis suite.
- Very comprehensive MLS- and FFT-based testing.
- Can do distortion, TD and room acoustics work.
- Steep learning curve.

NCH Tone Generator. (http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/)

- Applet for generating tones, multitones and sweeps.
- Simple but well-considered feature set.
- Basic noise, impulse and burst signals possible.

Wavegen. (http://www.sumuller.de/audiotester/)

- Nice shareware emulation of a hardware function generator.
- Does impulse, adjustable burst and arbitrary generation.
- Also includes a 2-ch FFT system that is OK, but less powerful than Sample Champ.

DazyWeb Instrumentation. (http://)

- A variety of general purpose audio scope and generator utilities.
- Free, but sometimes buggy under some OS flavors.

Thanks for the tips.
I'm gonna look into some of this stuff & get to downloading.

It will be cool if I can calibrate most my gear using my laptop & a other basic test gear.

try some FREE software for the sound card and see how you like this sort of thing before you by anything fancy

Audio Tester
http://www.sumuller.de/audiotester/maine.htm

Yes I agree with your suggestion. AUDIOTESTER is included with the WAVEGEN package that I mentioned. It's decent. The problem is that I have yet to find a laptop that doesn't have aggressive highpass filtering on the analog I/O.

Kev wrote: try some FREE software for the sound card and see how you like this sort of thing before you by anything fancy

Audio Tester
http://www.sumuller.de/audiotester/maine.htm

Here's one called Audio Test Bench

FREE

http://www.moonaudio.com/softwar5.htm

has

Oscilliscope
tone generator
spectrum analyzer
frequency plotter

let me know if you make a decision on test hardware, I broker CATV equipment in states and operators are always selling off old test euipment

G'luck

SI