I remember playing with my father's collection of tape recorders when I was young and one of them had such a "cat's eye". Maybe that's where my love for glowing phosphors started.

My father had one as well, an old Magnecord unit packaged into a wooden case with transport and preamp, with the preamp having one of these tubes. Nevertheless, it was also fitted (perhaps by the dealer) with a proper VU meter. I learned the basics of recording on that, which served me well at a variety of times.

Naturally, his FM tuner from that era also had a horizontal magic eye tube.

Old electronics had so much sovl.