The following review by Paul Vnuk Jr. was originally published in the September 2024 Edition of Recording Magazine. Read the original review Here.
Nuance Select – Monitor Controller
Control your speakers with pristine audio and well-curated features
Canada’s Radial Engineering is well known for its exhaustive selection of direct boxes, Reamp devices and compact stage box-style specialty audio fare. A few years ago, Radial took a welcome step into a more high-end, studio-focused direction with the HDI High Definition Studio Direct Box (reviewed in July 2020), and now, we welcome the Nuance Select Studio Monitor Controller.
Sonic and Visual Nuance
Radial is no stranger to monitor control and the stage-box style MC3 Studio Monitor Controller has been part of the line for years, but as we will see, the Nuance Select is in a whole new league.
Nuance Select is a 10″ (W) x 5″ (D) x 2.25″ (T) desktop-style monitor controller. Its looks and layout are straightforward, classy and even elegant, and its build quality is 100% battle-ready.
The gently sloping 1/4″ milled and etched aluminum faceplate (similar in style to the HDI) is finished in an anodized midnight blue. It features 12 round backlit hard-plastic function buttons (sources and phones in white, speakers in blue) that engage and disengage with a satisfying click, as well as 3 shiny chrome-capped stepped-level controls.
On the front are a pair of 1/4″ headphone outs, and on the rear of the unit are ten 1/4″ TRS I/O jacks, plus a 4-pin XLR power socket for use with the included external power supply.
Switch It Up
The Nuance Select focuses squarely on the most common, one could even say, time-tested features one needs in a monitor controller rather than trying to be all things to every possible user or, worse yet, “tricky.”
The unit allows for two stereo input sources (via two pairs of left and right inputs) to be sent to a pair of A or B stereo speaker destinations (with two pairs of Left and Right speaker outs). There is also a dedicated Sub button with a corresponding single (mono-summed) 1/4″ out that can nicely be used with a mono check speaker instead, when desired.
The Nuance Select only works with one source and one speak-er pair at a time. This means you can’t have both sources and/or speaker pairs active simultaneously. When SRC 2 is pressed, SRC 1 goes dark and mutes, while SRC 2 lights up and becomes active and vice versa.
The same happens with the speakers; as A is selected, B is dis-engaged. A second press of either turns the speaker routing off entirely. The exception to this is the Sub button, which, for obvious reasons, can be activated simultaneously with speaker A or B.
This is a great place to note that while Nuance is an active monitor controller, there is no onboard DSP, secret button presses or hidden configuration options. As such, you cannot set up the Sub button to automatically engage or disengage with a selected speaker.
Control
Keeping with the straight-ahead approach, there are only three control functions, which, as you might guess, are the three most common/expected monitor controller functions of Mono, Mute and Dim (-15dB).
Level adjustment of the selected monitor set is handled by a large 1.75″ chrome-capped 21-position stepped switch in 2dB steps (except in the lower quadrant where the steps increase to a greater jump/value).
Headphones
On the right of the unit are a pair of high-quality headphone amps. Each one features its own .75″ shiny chrome-capped stepped pot, a dual-source selection button, an independent 1/4″ output, and a single master headphone button to engage or disengage both headphone channels at once.
Each dual-source button (labeled SRC 1/2) receives a signal from source 1 when dark and source 2 when lit in white.
Aux
The final control on the unit routes the selected source to a rear 1/4″ TRS out-put that, with the use of a stereo TRS-Y breakout cable, lets you send the selected source (full volume) to a secondary device like an external headphone amp, recorder, or tracking room monitors, etc. The corresponding button here functions similarly to the aforementioned headphone source buttons.
In Use
Since I have two audio set-ups (home and studio), I tried the Nuance Select in both spaces and, simply put, it did not meet a monitor it didn’t like.
At my studio, it came in very handy for testing the Dynaudio Core 5 and Core Sub Compact, since the Core Sub Compact is not an inline sub, and I needed the added subwoofer out. I also enjoyed using the sub-output in mono with one of my Auratone 5C Active Super Cube 4.5-inch reference monitors. I already have an active monitor controller in my studio, which performs similar and additional tasks required by setup (analog summing, digital conversion, etc.). I moved the Nuance Select to my home editing and listening room, where I am currently using a less-expensive passive monitor controller and the difference in sound quality was instantly noticeable.
As an active controller, the Nuance Select offered more volume, but this was not simply a matter of being louder. The sound was clearer, more detailed and even more solid, with fantastic imaging.
Like a good monitor controller, the Nuance Select does not have a sound of its own; rather, it lets the sound of your DAC and/or audio interface shine through in a glorious hi-fi way. I also appreciated being able to use the Aux out to feed an external dedicated headphone amp, although its headphone amps are quite nice on their own.
The Nuance Select does not offer any onboard output/speaker attenuation. Since I run my DAC and audio interfaces at full range—bypassing those units’ volume pots when possible—the Nuance Select is loud and proud.
This meant that most of my listening took place in the lower quadrant of the unit’s master control knob, where the jumps are bigger, and the usually minute and imperceptible dropouts between settings could, at times, become more pronounced. I am told that is inherent in every analog stepped switch, so it’s just something to be aware of if, like me, you spend a lot of time listening in the 50–60dB range with a wide-open audio source. My next step will be to turn my monitors down and re-calibrate my system.
Wrap Up
The Radial Nuance Select is a wonderfully designed device with a simple yet well-chosen selection of source and speaker routing options, monitor controller features and top-shelf build quality. Best of all, it exhibits a pristine, high-fidelity sound that stays out of the way of your music, which is arguably the most important consideration in a monitor controller.
