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A neat little toy I picked up on the Bay...

T

Taketheflame

Super Member
Had to share this impulse buy of mine with some quick first impressions (too soon for an in-depth review).

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The One Little Bear/Douk Audio VU2. Admittedly, I mainly bought it as some eye candy for my PC setup (where all my digital gear is), but it also functions as a 1-in/4-out or 4-in/1-out audio splitter (and even comes with a remote for such), which I decided will come in handy at some point.

So far, this thing is a lot of fun and feels like a pretty well made unit, with a bit of heft to it. The VU meters have a great, smooth motion to them like the quality tape equipment of yesteryear (and the meters themselves are pretty big, easily eclipsing those on my CT-F-1000). Definitely adds a touch of vintage class that's always welcome in my book.

There are certainly cheaper options for someone looking for an audio splitting box, but those of you looking for some eye candy for a PC system, or as a possible alternative to the vintage Realistic APM-200, take note :).
 
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You can put it between your preamp out and up to four amps if you wanted. That may work better than the way I have my system setup at the moment. I have two amplifiers connected to the two pre outs on my preamp with another preamp/amp combo connected to the tape out of the first preamp with two sets of speakers connected to a switch box. With this I can eliminate the second preamp and even add a fourth amp. :idea:
 
Lavane said:
You can put it between your preamp out and up to four amps if you wanted. That may work better than the way I have my system setup at the moment. I have two amplifiers connected to the two pre outs on my preamp with another preamp/amp combo connected to the tape out of the first preamp with two sets of speakers connected to a switch box. With this I can eliminate the second preamp and even add a fourth amp. :idea:
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Lots of possibilities with this unit :).

I plan to eventually use it as a way to route my digital gear to multiple amps in a future music listening/creating room that's in the planning stages. Will be helpful to me from not only a convenience standpoint, but also space (which I've already allocated more of than I probably should to various analog components, lol).
 
w1jim said:
What is the delay used for and how big is it?
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Delay controls the meter needle speed to personal taste (less = faster, probably better for rock/pop/electronic music, and more = slower, probably better for jazz, vocals, classical, etc.).

It's 11" wide, 5" deep (excluding knobs), and just shy of 3.5" tall. These meters aren't as beastly as what you may find on some certain power amps out there, but are bigger than any cassette deck meters I've come across (they're perhaps comparable to larger R2R meters or multitrack recording tape machines).
 
That makes sense.
I saw the image below online and wondered about the size.
I've built a couple of source selectors for my systems - this could be very useful with the remote feature.

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/\ - That picture is a bit misleading! Makes it look more like a receiver/amp or turntable in size. It's bigger than a lot of desktop DACs, but smaller than a standard size component - so it can work in systems with either.

The remote is indeed useful on it. I'm starting to think I need more gear with a remote...
 
I've been pleased with the Douk audio products I've purchased so far.. P1, P2, and U4..
May pick one of these up also, even just for that vintage look.
 
Taketheflame said:
/\ - That picture is a bit misleading! Makes it look more like a receiver/amp or turntable in size. It's bigger than a lot of desktop DACs, but smaller than a standard size component - so it can work in systems with either.

The remote is indeed useful on it. I'm starting to think I need more gear with a remote...
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Ya, it's a bit over 11"W x 3.15" tall.
 
So that this thing is basically a high end RCA splitter box? Those are cool and very useful as it seems that lots of maps don't have enough inputs. The meters while no means necessary (or maybe even all that useful) are a nice touch. I like the fact too that it has a remote. I get the gain knob, but what's with the one that says "delay?"
 
Aaron Hayman said:
So that this thing is basically a high end RCA splitter box? Those are cool and very useful as it seems that lots of maps don't have enough inputs. The meters while no means necessary (or maybe even all that useful) are a nice touch. I like the fact too that it has a remote. I get the gain knob, but what's with the one that says "delay?"
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Explained in post #8..

But also from the douk audio website..

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It seems the remote has limited functions..
They also have a lower priced version for those only interested in vu meters without the switching capability..

Screenshot_2021-03-14-18-50-23.png
 
Cool unit! Techmoan on youtube reviewed the Douk last December, and (spoiler alert) he liked it quite a bit


I've been thinking of picking on up myself. Despite the obvious eye candy of the meters, it serves a useful function with the source selector. At lease that's what I'd tell myself :rolleyes:
 
Lavane said:
The lower priced option is pretty small.
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Yes it is..
I don't really have a need for one, pretty cool though considering the other products aren't very large either..
But for a small system on the home office desk, a Pi4 with a douk pre and a vu meter with dancing needles, a small amp, and a couple efficient bookshelf speakers.. fun audio stuff.. :thumbsup:
 
saunadog said:
Cool unit! Techmoan on youtube reviewed the Douk last December, and (spoiler alert) he liked it quite a bit


I've been thinking of picking on up myself. Despite the obvious eye candy of the meters, it serves a useful function with the source selector. At lease that's what I'd tell myself :rolleyes:
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For just plain eay candy, the one on top of the stack is easy to set up since it just uses a built in mic.
 
Just went to the website. They sure make a lot of goodies. Anyone had any experiences with any of the other stuff other than the items mentioned in other posts?
 
Old HiFi Guy said:
Just went to the website. They sure make a lot of goodies. Anyone had any experiences with any of the other stuff other than the items mentioned in other posts?
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I've had good luck with equipment from Douk Audio. I started buying bits and pieces from them when they sold mostly circuit boards and parts. I've bought two headphone amps, a phono preamp and a few small power supplies and such from them. Everything is still working and sounding good. The one headphone amplifier I have is from a limited run line of equipment they sold. Mostly small single ended or push push pull tube amps using various output and driver tubes, Just ten each for every amplifier design. There must have been around eight or so different amplifiers, I only see a few of one or two different amp types left. They sold pretty good. I'm really happy with the headphones amp.
 
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