[cokenbeer]

A sales guy tried to sell my step dad a full 7.1 setup of Nuance speakers.... They didn't sound all that great but he went on and on about them.

My step-dad is looking for a system for his summer home, he's running Wilson Pups and MacIntosh Amp and Receiver at our house. (Don't ask where the money comes from) So he really knows what sounds great and has the disposable income for some decent speakers. I told him to stay away from Nuance, they sounded very strange and I couldn't find any info anywhere on the internet.

What do you folks think? And what do you recommend?

 

[ctown6412]

STAY AWAY!!!!!! I used to sell Nuance when I worked at soundsaround. Really nice markup for sales people!HUGE MARKUP! Its all in the sales pitch for them but you can do the same pitch with any set of speakers and get pretty much the same results. My best sale I litteraly put $900 in commission from selling a full set of Nuance to some poor sap who just wanted a set of bookshelves

They are made by a canadian manufacture, I cant recall the affilate companies any more but I would stay clear of them.

 

[shugz204]

If memory serves me, they are manufactured by a company that manufactures speakers for many companies. You will probably find that the manufacturer http://www.onlycc.com makes speakers for many base store models as well as naunce.

Those Nuance speakers are however painted up really nice with their piano black finish.

A friend of mine paid over $6000.00 for a set of Nuance 4-way towers, centre and rears. He thinks they are the greatest thing in the world. They are far from it! Believe me~! I believe those were the only speakers he has ever owned and/or listened to.

When I was shopping for speakers, I went to a local Audio store that a relative of mine holds storage for. Since the salesperson knew that, he directed me far away from the Nuance display room. FAR AWAY!

 

[hugh]

Company link

From the company website you can goto Nuance Speaker forums. It seems you have to register to gain admittance to the forums but you may wish to check it out.

 

[zest]

Last time i was in soundsaround, at least 3 years ago ,the sales people kept pushing those nuance speakers. In fact three were blocking the door out , the phone rang and one turned his back to answer and i bolted out the door. I wasnt even there to buy speakers i was pricing t.v's at the time, and i told them i thought the speakers sounded terrible
In fact i was so ticked off by this i buy all my home theater stuff online and use forums like this to get informed choices.
check out www.axiomaudio.com and www.av123.com , av123 is american but he has some really nice stuff and its worth the hassle of cross border shopping sometimes.

 

[reubenesque]

Nuance sats

Not knowing Nuance from the speakers of Adam, I bought a pair of Sat1 speakers from a friend...originally just for the stands to put in my guest room. Then I took them home and tried them out next to my Monitor Audio PMCs with the classic gold tweets. Now, keep in mind, there is nothing online for these things (aka Bose sales strategy). Then you start to hear about the poor suckers who spent like $7-15K or more for an HT set. Scary. Anyway, there's a lot of passionate "stay away" talk, like a real distain. I'd have to say, yes, maybe because of the encoded CDs and the sales pressure scam tactics. But that's process, not product. So what about these products anyway. Well, tell tale signs of cheapness are the single binding posts. I also can't see how the foam rim around the dome tweeters helps on the sound stage dispersion end if things...anyway, sound, the illusion of sound, how is that? Well, there is a slight "plastic" sound to them, they have lower sensitivity and what are you going to get in bass from a smallish sealed enclosure like that? All in all though, and much to my amazement, they held their own next to the classic monitor audios. They have some real soundstage and there's good articulation without the harshness. All in all, though, I would equate these speakers to a good set of Missions or PSBs...Says a lot since I've demoed B&W, Bostons, NHTs and was not as thrilled. Anyway, to all the brutal Canadian critics out there, I'd say, if they sound good, and you like the sound and are willing to pay whatever for them...that's what its all about. Where are these little lacquer boxes now? ...they made my bedroom over my bose jewels which got kitchen duty.

 

[Bent]

Do Nuance dealerships allow you the option of getting your cash back if you aren't satisfied - for example if you bought Nuance speakers from dealer #1 and Feces brand speakers from dealer #2 and liked the Feces better?
I'm sure that if anyone did a objective comparison between Nuance and Feces at their own home, they would pick Feces as their preference.

I'd hate to be stuck with Feces in my theater room but I'd dislike it even more if I had to keep the Nuance speakers.

YMMV.

 

[Kpt_Krunch]

Wow - talk about dragging up an old thread.

We had International Stereo selling them here. Every time I went in that place, some moron was trying to sell me these 8 foot tall speakers and was touting them as the best speaker ever made. I always thought they looked ridculous, and how come I never saw them in a room with a proper setup.

Another alarm bell is 'they' always provided the material. Usually a 'Q' sound disk from Madonna or Sting (if memory serves). I listened to one demo just because I was killing time as my wife was next door looking at purses or something. After the demo - I told him they sounded nice but how was I going to get them into a room with an 8 foot ceiling? When he actually started to answer, I cut him off, and told him that if wanted to personally pay for a home reno that would add a two foot ceiling to my room, we'd talk.

I also told him if these were so damn good, why push so hard to sell them? Most good products sell themselves. You don't need to constantly berate a 'potential' customer. One thing I've found - the harder the sales pitch, the crappier the deal (or quality of product).

I'd buy Bose over Nuance, I really would. At least I could hide those suckers.

 

[Stealth12]

Well....

OK I am not gonna say Nuance is the Sh** cause its not,but.... and hear me out... my roommate bought a set of 5 (two 6 foot fronts, two 4 foot rears, center) and they sound decent.... why, you ask would he buy them if they only sound ok? because thanks to the selling pressure of the aforementioned retailers some poor sap bought them on credit (10,000 plus with amp and projector/screen if i remember right) and then he couldn't pay so my friend took them off his hands for 3000 for the whole bit, brand new, so for that price and i must admit there warranty is not bad, we blew an amp in one of the front tower, they have built in subs (probably due to transporting from northern Man, to Edmonton in the winter ) we walked into a nuance dealer with the amp said "its broken" and walked out 2 mins later with a new in box amp no questions asked, so all in all if i was building my "ultimate home theater" no i would not use nuances, but there not evil if they have the right price tag

 

[Kpt_Krunch]

That's precisely why International Stereo got shut down. They gave anybody credit and not just credit - unlimited credit. There was a big scandal about that here what, four maybe five years ago now - and International Stereo was forced to shut down.

Those speakers aren't worth the wood they use to build 'em. Sorry, but it's true. They look ridiculous to boot.

 

[koala]

My apologies for digging up an old thread but I just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents here.

I purchased some nuance speakers way back in 1998 when I was only 14 years old... and I spent quite a bit of money (to a 14 year old!) - I believe around $1500 for my 5.1 setup.

To this date, they're still my main speaker setup and they've been used and abused on a daily basis for 10 years, including many nights of house parties where the receiver was turned up nearly as loud as it would go (I've had two denon receivers over that same 10 year period, an AVR-2800 and an AVR-3806).

I did upgrade the centre speaker about 4 years ago to a different brand as I felt that the centre speaker I had was not very good (it was the one speaker I cheaped out on as in 1998 I didn't realize how important a centre speaker was for movies).

Otherwise the subwoofer, front speakers and rear surround speakers have all served me well for 10 years now.

I'm the type of impulse consumer that buys new stuff all the time almost just for the sake of having the latest and greatest but for some reason I've never felt compelled to replace my Nuance speakers...

 

[kingpin111]

I bought Nuance speakers from the old Kennedy Hi-fi in scarborough. This was a long time ago mind you. They had a room dedicated to Nuance which I paired up to a Yamaha receiver and 5 disc changer.

And, Yes. They did play "Vogue" by Madonna. I remember how cool I thought it was that sound felt like it was coming from everywhere.

Mike

 

[tenax]

wow, seeing as others have dredge up this old thread, i bought a pair of nuance speakers in 1991 for fronts before surround sound was da schizzle i can't remember the model number but they are a large bookshelf type speaker..i'd say 2.5 ft tall, 14 inch wide, 12 inch deep sort of thing? still are in service as my front speakers and still sound great to my ears. can't speak to how new ones sound, didn't even know these were still being made..but when they first came out, they were the studio reference speakers for warner's sound studio and i believe universal picked them up as well. for their size, they are damn heavy

 

[helgo]

Nuance

hehe, i also bought a 5 speaker set in 2000. i thought it was great, but recently moved and now have Paradigm S6/C5/ADP 3's and Servo 15 with INtegra9.8 / ANthem A5. BIG difference in quality of sound !

 

[Coop]

Add me to this list... I returned them 2 days later.

And, Yes. They did play "Vogue" by Madonna. I remember how cool I thought it was that sound felt like it was coming from everywhere.

I went through the same sales pitch at Sounds Around, the disk they used was recorded with Q-Sound technology which give the 3-D sound.

 

[warpdrive7]

I bought a Nuance 7.1 setup back in 02 at the infamous West Ed international Stereo. I sent an n-200 sub amp in to be repaired 14 months ago and never got it back. I had been emailing back and forth with George Baker himself. He told me to send it on in and they would fix it and return it free of charge. BS. I contacted him at monthly intervals asking about the progress. His replies were short and cryptic, some not making much sense at all. After about 6 months I started emailing all the addresses on the company website (while it still existed) and got a reply from some guy named Mario Thibault who gave me George Bakers personal cell number. I called and talked to him a few times and he assured me it would be sent back shortly. BS. I finally left a voicemail for him at about the 1 year mark that expressed my belief that he was a piece of fecal matter. I've all but given up hope now, ill likely get a piece of plexy or wood to cover the gapping whole in the back of the speaker where the amp used to attach. Since all this started the amp has gone to crap in the other tower so I went out and bought a stand alone sub, Polk audio, might not be the best, but it was on sale for half price on Future Shops website. During my talks with Mr. Fecal Matter Baker he told me they were opening new stores in Edmonton. One at 118ave and 95st, the other at 95st and Argyll. Not sure what they are called (I live an hour away) but if they sell anything that is Nuance or made by the same people... BUYERS BEWARE! Crappy customer service. I can only wish I would have researched the speaker purchase before I jumped in, I can assure you I would not have bought Nuance.

PS- If anyone wants to give George Baker a call, here's his cell number 1(647) 999-7517. Tell him what you think of Nuance (Garbage) Audio, and that I say hi.

 

[ScooterMcTavish]

LMAO

Hahaha!

LMAO @ giving out that phone number. Worth a call for those who got sold the line of "list for $10,000, but can get them to you for $1,999 today".

Oh well, if everything you own is recorded in Q-Sound, I guess they're OK.

 

[Bent]

it might be tough to get him to answer - unless his cell service is really something special.

and to add credibility,

another obit.

 

[TECHNOKID]

Confessing sins...

WOW! This thread has turned out has a big sin confession with lots of `mea coulpa`! Guys, you should have bought Fluance NOT Nuance as at the price difference, GOOD or BAD you wouldn't have suffered the lost so much

 

[ScooterMcTavish]

Wow Bent,

I almost feel bad now.

When I went and bought my receiver at Krazy Krazy (long story), the sales guy just had to demo me these awesome speakers. I do have to admit, they looked nice, and were piano black well before anything else was.

However, when he turned up the demo, and turned off the lights, I thought some inappropriate touching may take place (which thank God it did not).

Then when he told me the insane list price, reduced to the crazy manager special price, I actually laughed at him. His face kind of fell - maybe he thought he had a mark.

Well, at least I can thank George for two things:
- API was a hell of a company (until bought by Klipsch)
- It was the most amusing demo I've ever had