Reviews of Sunbeam Trio, Aspire X-Cruiser

[FunkZ]

Hey guys, in these two reviews...

Sunbeam Trio
http://www.ocia.net/reviews/trio/page5.shtml

Aspire X-Cruiser
http://www.ocia.net/reviews/xcruiser/page5.shtml

...it shows the VU meters as not working or not used.

Not sure if you realized or not that the Volume meter only works if you have the audio cable for the front panel plugged into your motherboard. Usually this disables the rear panel audio outputs and you plug your speakers or headphones into the front case jack. The gauge will then work as sound is played through the jack. This type of connector won't work with most sound cards though.

Not the only reviewer that thought the VU meter had something to do with the sound pressure level inside the case.

http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/cases/Sunbeam_Trio/pg4.html

[silenze]

Hm.. well I hate front panel connectors and I noted that I didn't hook mine up.. which would be a good reason for it not working based on your idea hehe..

But you're aware of Sunbeam's lack of documentation & instruction.... :wink:

Did you actually try that ??

http://www.sunbeamtech.com/PRODUCTS/Trio/trio.htm

"Sound pressure detection, display & adjustment"

Sounds just like an Sound Pressure Level meter to me...

"The human auditory system is designed to detect rapid local variations in air pressure and convert them into what we perceive as sound. These air pressure variations, caused by the repeated compression and rarefaction of air molecules, can be induced by many sources but the source most relevant to us as audiophiles is the motion of the drivers (or panels) in our loudspeakers. The pressure wave caused by such motion propagates through the air of our listening rooms and causes tiny membranes in our ears to vibrate, which in turn allow us to hear the pressure wave as sound. The perceived loudness of the sound we hear is proportional to the pressure of the sound wave."

These operate with a microphone.....

I'm not a recording studio guru... am I missing something?

If anything, from what you're saying... you use a microphone plugged into the front panel connector to have it function as an SPL meter... which would be retarded considering a normal SPL meter is a handheld device you place WHERE you place your SPEAKERS to setup your sound system... so you'd be moving your tower around a lot, with all those wires... aye... What would be the point of playing your sound out through it and displaying the properties of that... if that even works...

[FunkZ]

Sorry if I misread that. Maybe it's just me. What I got from the reviews was that the gauge did not work or that it was unclear exactly what it was supposed to do. That reviewer over at Overclock Cafe actually noted this as a "Con" as if the unit was broken.

The gauge moves when sound is played through the audio jack only if the audio connector is plugged into the motherboard header. If you plug your speakers into the front jack rather than the motherboard jack on the rear you'll hear what the needle is dancing to.

Again, sorry if I misinterpreted the reviews but just wanted to clarify how the gauge was actually supposed to function. Originally the impression I got was this gauge was supposed to measure the sound level inside the case. (noise generated by fans, drives and whatnot)

[silenze]

Absolutely no reason for apology.. we like feedback :wink:

Just explaining my take on it with supportive infoz..

Originally the impression I got was this gauge was supposed to measure the sound level inside the case. (noise generated by fans, drives and whatnot)

Yeah that's exactly what I thought :lol:


Go Sunbeam... personally I would say that gauge is retarded :lol:

[FunkZ]

Yeah, who needs a gauge to show when sound is coming out of your speakers? Either the speakers are working or they're not! And if they are you're hardly going to look at the gauge, you'll just listen to the speakers. :???:

Well I could see it as somewhat useful if you were troubleshooting speakers with no sound, the needle would confirm there is signal there. But how often does that happen?

Another use might be if you were recording audio or something but didn't want to listen to it, you could turn your speaker volume down and know by when the needle stopped moving that the sound had stopped.

I dunno, I think the idea of it being an internal case sound level meter would have been more useful. When someone asks how loud a Tornado is you could reply with a more authorative answer other than just "it's freaking loud!" :lol:

But it is what it is, it does work and it looks cool, it's just not very useful. :|