# Monitoring audio

The front panel includes a 3.5 mm headphones audio jack for monitoring audio. To monitor the audio for a channel, just select the channel using the Admin panel. The audio you hear depends on the audio source configured in the live channel layout. On Pearl Nexus, different layouts can have different audio sources configured.

Increasing the volume to 100% may cause you to hear distortion that is not actually present in the audio signal being recorded and streamed.

**Adjust the volume on Pearl Nexus**

- Log in to the Admin panel as **admin**

- From the Outputs ports menu, select **Front audio**

- From the Source drop down list, select one of the available channels.

- Set the audio level and click the Apply button.

**Audio VU meter**

A VU meter in the Admin panel — or on the local console, if enabled — shows the audio levels for the channel you are monitoring. The value is displayed in dBFS (decibels relative to full scale). Colored bars represent the audio level.

Channels that have stereo audio display two bars. The top bar is the left audio channel and the bottom bar is the right audio channel.

**Table 3 Audio VU meter levels**

| **Color** | **Decibel range** |
| --- | --- |
| Red | 0 to -9 dBFS |
| Yellow | -9 to -18 dBFS |
| Green | -18 dBFS and lower |

The VU meter appears in several different places so you can visually check audio levels:

- **Admin Panel**: On the audio input source's configuration page when you select the input source from the Inputs menu. You can also add the VU meter to appear on the video output ports

- **Epiphan Live**: See Monitor video and audio input sources using Epiphan Live in the Pearl Family shared guide.

> product: pearl-nexus · topic: audio · source: pearl-nexus-userguide.md · updated: Oct 13, 2026