Used Fluke 187

[Zander]

Somebody is willing to sell a Fluke 187 for 300 USD. What do you guys think? Too much? Not needed or any alternatives?

Zander

 

[PRR]

$300 is a going price. But why do you want a 187? True RMS is not that useful for audio.

 

[Brian Roth]

The 187 does have a pretty wide bandwidth....100 kHz IIRC....which is useful for audio.

Bri

 

[Kingston]

I have 179 and could certainly use the additional resolution that 187 model has for all ACmV, resistance and capacitance especially.

Seems like that resolution does come with quite the price.

 

[Zander]

In the end I didn't buy the 187.

Does somebody know a good ,maybe  reasonable alternative? Doesn't have to be fluke...

 

[Zander]

$300 is a going price. But why do you want a 187? True RMS is not that useful for audio.

>How do you measure dBu? Don't I need the rms value for V -> dBu (0.775V=0dBu) ETC? I don't have any other meter devices except from an oscilloscope and very inaccurate DMM.

 

[benqbasic]

I have a 179 and a 289 which i upgraded from the 187.
I use my 179 for my diy audio work and my 289 for my actual day job.

The only issue i have seen with the 187 is the circuit board cracking where the banana plug sockets are from people being to rough inserting leads or dropping them (not sure which).
I would take a 187 over my 179. But for diy audio the 179 is fine. Both have good battery life and boot up instantly which is something i can't say for the 289.

But overall I think cheap meter and a scope is where my money would go for diy audio. Flukes are overpriced if your not using them day in day out.

 

[Zander]

I have a 179 and a 289 which i upgraded from the 187.
I use my 179 for my diy audio work and my 289 for my actual day job.

The only issue i have seen with the 187 is the circuit board cracking where the banana plug sockets are from people being to rough inserting leads or dropping them (not sure which).
I would take a 187 over my 179. But for diy audio the 179 is fine. Both have good battery life and boot up instantly which is something i can't say for the 289.

But overall I agree with PRR cheap meter and a scope is where my money would go for diy audio. Flukes are overpriced if your not using them day in day out.

Thanks for sharing your opinion

I have the option on:
-179: 200 USD (shipping and taxes included)
-187: 300 USD (shipping and taxes included)

Is it worth the $100 that's the question.

Zander

 

[peterc]

I have an 87 MkIII which I am very happy with, bought off this forum for $140.

Did a quick and dirty test to determine the bandwidth. Sent 100mV out of my sig gen, and measured on the meter.

1kHz: 100mV
10kHz: 100mV
100kHz: 98mV

So it seems to have a wide bandwidth on its AC Volts setting. Learnt something new today!

Peter

 

[benqbasic]

Thanks for sharing your opinion

I have the option on:
-179: 200 USD (shipping and taxes included)
-187: 300 USD (shipping and taxes included)

Is it worth the $100 that's the question.

Zander

While I don't know if those are good prices, if you have the money to spend, the 187 is a very nice meter. 
Check out the specs of both and see if you would use the extra features. dBu/dBm measurement is a nice extra (I believe its available on the 187?).

 

[Brian Roth]

I looked at the 179's owner's manual online, and the AC voltage ranges are only spec'ed to 1 kHz.  That is VERY common for many DVM's, since they are only intended to measure mains voltages, not audio.

Bri

 

[PRR]

>> True RMS is not that useful for audio.
> How do you measure dBu? Don't I need the rms value for V -> dBu (0.775V=0dBu) ETC?

You usually measure audio levels with a Sine wave. All AC voltmeters are calibrated to read RMS Volts correctly on sine waves.

Averaging meters work perfectly well; indeed most audio has historically been measured with averaging meters (VU).

Peak-responding meters (PPM) work fine as long as the tone does not have spikes or flat-tops.

If the tone is very UN-Sine, then we usually won't care about the "dBu". We ask about the height of the peak or the percent THD.

So "any" AC Voltmeter should do, within its limits.

As Brian says, many general-purpose meters (even good ones!) are not rated for accuracy above 400Hz or 1KHz. The only AC Volts that most electricians run into are 50/60Hz Sines. The meter should be nearly 10X better, which is 400-1000Hz or so.

And older "True RMS" techniques can be *worse* than simple averaging meters. A 9-cent opamp can give decent AC/DC conversion to over 10KHz. RMS conversion the old way requires extreme gain at low levels, and 400hz may be a stretch. Worse, the roll-off varies with level, which can really confuse some audio measurements.

> very inaccurate DMM

The $3 DMMs on eBay are reasonably accurate (until you break them). I might not trust them for milliVolts; however in a no-bucks shop you can build a 10X/100X opamp booster to bring small levels up near a Volt. You want to sweep the audio band to know of any treble roll-off.

And I've also been happy with the $50 DMMs from Radio Shack (every electronics chain has similar meters). You do still need to check for reasonable readings on low Volts and high frequencies.

Traditionally a great shop has several meters. The all-purpose VTVM reads large AC Volts great but gets cramped below a part-Volt (and often does not stay flay below 10Hz) (and was often peak-responding). For *good* AC Volts you used a Boonton or the H-P ACVM, essentially an amplifier plus an averaging rectifier which would resolve down to a milliVolt and up to 1MHz. These usually had dB scales as well as Volt scales. For everyday audio level checking we used a VU meter or a "gain set" which is a tone-source, attenuator, amplifier, and VU meter in a box.

 

[kambo]

i have two 187 one here , one back home
one of the best investments i ever made...
add Peak atlas LCR, u r set