I bought all of the HUD chips at the beginning of my first playthrough and immediately equipped them. Most give useful HUD features like an EXP bar or health meter, but I've been unable to figure out what the Sound Wave HUD chip does for me.
It seems to just display a small sound analyzer that analyzes the BGM. I've had it equipped for over 20 hours of playtime and haven't noticed it do anything special other than this. Is this really all it does? It seems absolutely pointless to have equipped if this is the case.
Best Answer
Aside from analyzing the BGM and looking cool, the HUD Sound Waves chip serves one other purpose. According to posts like the one in this thread, it helps you find a specific Pod in the desert:
This is backed up in this thread, as well:
If you've already found this Pod or are confident in your hearing abilities, there appears to be no other purpose to this chip other than being a BGM analyzer.