About 20 years ago I tinkered a bit with car audio as a "hobby," I had a Sony XES system in my 911- still do.
Well, anyways if you went to a high end stereo dealer or competed in a "sound off," there was a good chance that they had an Alpine 4780 real time analyzer(RTA) to judge the frequency response of your system. I always thought they were very cool and if I begged my sales guy, he might hook it up to my car and let me tweek the equalizer for a few minutes- not really enough time to get it perfect.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and for some unknown reason I thought about that RTA and went to eBay where I found one listed; good shape and untested; starting bid $50, what the heck, I put down $150 for my max and was the only bidder, so for $50 plus $20 shipping it was mine.
Came on a Friday, only has a car plug so I went out to the winter car and hooked it up, pushed the power button, power light comes on, nothing on the screen. Okay, I see a contrast knob, turn it up and the screen comes on, except the bars are frozen, so I turn it off and back on- YES! works like a charm. Original price in 1987- $1650! this thing just reeks of quality, even the case is well built.
Display of frequency response
Display of sound pressure level
