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the "NUANCE EXPERIENCE" (1 Viewer)

Travis*N

Auditioning
Joined
Apr 22, 2003
Messages
13
has anyone ever seen or heard of a speaker callled NUANCE. i have had a few very interesting experiences with nuance and the sales reps(not good)
 

PaulDF

Second Unit
Joined
May 17, 2002
Messages
354
I'm sure your experience is very mutual. I know here in Canada, Nuance is a real nuissance. There are many discussions here that a search will reveal.

I was thinking about this just this morning. I wanted to start a thread asking if anyone has ever REALLY "interrogated" a Nuance salesman. I know they prey on people who know little... I wanted to hear some stories of people giving the sales reps a hard time!!

I too have fell prey to the Nuance scam in the past. But now I know better, and I'd like nothing more than to question a rep about the mysterious Nuance 3D Spatial speaker priced 20 times too high.
 

Ron_L

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 21, 2002
Messages
273
I'm surprised that Future Shop here in Canada doesn't stock Nuance, their salespeople are as annoying as it gets. Persistant little bastards.

They wanted me to send back the new RPTV I had just gotten so they could sell me one $100 less than what I paid for it and throw in some component cables.
 

Travis*N

Auditioning
Joined
Apr 22, 2003
Messages
13
I hate how pushy the sales-scum-men are. And when you start asking very basic questions about the speakers, all they can tell you is "nuance are so good, there is no need to list any specs," or "nuance have a secret technology that is so good, we can't even explain it, you just have to experience it". They don't know frequency range, max power handling, or even have a clue as to how much power is in the built in amplifier on the models that are powered.
There is no price listed on any model, and when you ask, they will quote some astronomically high number, like $8000, but then say, "we will get you a better deal than that" and eventuall they will come down to about $2000-3000. Huh? you just knocked $5000 off of this set of speakers? What kind of markup are you guys working with to begin?
I think the real kicker was when i was told of the warranty. Basically, they are covered for anything, even if your drunken friends smash beer bottles through every driver in a wild party, they will be replaced free of charge, and it doesn't matter how many times you do this. I told the rep that all this tells me is that these speakers are manufactured so cheaply and sold at such an exhorbitantly high mark-up that they can afford to do this. Show me another "high end" speaker manufacturer that will do this. I had to laugh, as he really did not know what to say.
That is just a little of the B.S. I went through in the name of nuance, and I know it probably sounds like I made this up, but the store that sells these garbage speakers is called International Stereo. Check it out if you ever see one, but be prepared for a barrage of uppity salesmen patting you on the back (literally) and saying you are their buddy, and they will get you the best deal they have ever given anyone, because they know exactly what your taste in movies and music are.
I guess they kinda remind me alot of the white van scam post that was on the boards about a month ago, but these nuance are utter, total crap
I did kinda grill the salesman a bit, and its funny. They crap their pants once they realize you know a bit about audio. These speakers are almost 6 feet high and the mids/tweeters are at the very top, and the subs are down near the bottom. Then they sit you in a really low chair and you have 4 10" subs firing right at you and the mids /highs way over your head. (this is all in a room about 10' x 10') All you hear is gut shaking bass, nothing else. I also asked the salesman why anyone would demo $10,000 speakers using a $600 reciever that is cranked right up to its limit. "oh, nuance are so good, they sound good with any amp"
The last straw was when the guy said these would put my paradigm studio 60's to shame.
 

JohnnyG

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 18, 2000
Messages
1,522
All the stores I've seen that carry this brand carry ONLY this brand so there is absolutely nothing around to compare it to.

A page right out of the Bose playbook!

I've had some very decent looking speakers presented to me over the years with cost prices on a 3-way tower less than the price of a steak dinner at The Keg, but a retail price greater than dinner for 4 at Ruth's Chris! They'll sound fine on their own, until you compare it with something 'real'. It's all about perception.
 

Andrew S

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 30, 2001
Messages
214
I've experienced Nuance's "Spatial Sound Technology(TM)". "Chuck" was my salesman, and he gave me is card, which was also a coupon for 40% off the speaker package!!! I also watched him pound the hell out of one of the drivers to show us how rugged they were - my dad and I joked that they were Chuck-Proof :). The speakers didn't sound THAT bad, but like others said, I wasn't given the opportunity to compare them to other speakers in the same price-range. I won't knock the speakers themselves, because they do sound better than my Sony towers I paid $60 for, but the sales tactics they use are just cheesy. Not to mention when I asked "Chuck" what the frequency response was, he replied with, "6 ohms." But hey, everyone else in the store wasn't pushy, the owner always treats me like gold even though the most I've ever spent in that store was $300. It was just "Chuck" that made me quiver...
 

AaronMg

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 20, 2002
Messages
247
One of their guys tried to tell me that B&W, Nuance, and JBL were all made in the same factory :D
 

EdNichols

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 15, 2003
Messages
372
Suppose Nuance and "Dogg Digital" (the white van speakers) are marketed by the same people? Sounds like Bose wanna bees to me.
 

Steve Winkler

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 13, 2000
Messages
179
My latest encounter with the goofs at International Stereo was the best so far. A good friend and I walk in just to have a look at what else they are selling, amps, TV's etc.

Almost immediately we are approached by a good looking woman in her early 20's wearing some nice fitting clothes and asked how we are doing, any questions, is the mall busy today? General chit chat. We reply politely and say just browsing. Two minutes later a little deeper into the store we are approached by a second good looking young woman with essentially the same rapport. It was quite entertaining as I'm sure if we had asked some technical questions we'd have been referred to one of the more "knowledgeable" senior salesmen and how "great" these spatial sound speakers are. It is like they are pimping these poor women to sell electronics. Nice little ego boost for me and my buddy though, I mean anytime a good looking woman chats you up is OK in my books.:D

Just thought I'd add that to the continuing Nuance thread and hope no one falls for their scam.

Steve
 

JohnnyG

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 18, 2000
Messages
1,522
Steve, without asking any questions, how can you speculate about their product knowledge?

Seems to me that you are perpetuating the very stereotype you're complaining about?!

Also, where's that location exactly ;)
 

Kwang Suh

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 4, 1999
Messages
849
Say, Steve, were you at Sunridge Mall today? I was walking around the mall when I noticed some unfortunate people being "helped" at IS.
 

Christopher~O

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
121
I'm surprised that Future Shop here in Canada doesn't stock Nuance, their salespeople are as annoying as it gets.
The folks that flog nuance make Future Shop employees look enlightened and objective.

Oh well, when International set up in Northland near Future Shop I was able to use them to sqeeze Future Shop for $400 off of my HK AVS-525...
 

Ron_L

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 21, 2002
Messages
273
Christopher,

that's pretty good deal.

If Nuance salespeople are worse than Future Shop's, I gotta check them out for a laugh.
 
Joined
Apr 2, 2003
Messages
23
Real Name
Scott
I was going to link to my posting on Audioreview.com but it's dissapeared somewhere!?! To make it short, my experience was at Krazy Krazy in Winnipeg and was nearly identical to what Travis talked about. The sales people were the most obnoxious I've ever seen (these guys have this rep in Winnipeg). The speaker sound was ok (but way out of line for the price, even when he cut it back by 75%). Yes, they used the Q sound encoded discs. They used all the same tricks.

The most entertaining thing was when I told him what other audio equipment I was looking at. I said I was mainly looking at B&W speakers....his jaw dropped. His only real response was "oh", as in he now realized that he wasn't dealing with a novice. But they still tried hard to get make a deal for me and made about 20 different concessions.

Bottom line is, even if I didn't know anything about speakers, I would never buy anything with a sales approach like that. I don't like being pressured and that's what they do the best. Trust your gut feeling, quite often it's right.
 

Neil Joseph

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 16, 1998
Messages
8,332
Real Name
Neil Joseph
JohnnyG, I made the change. Thanks.

As for the Nuance, if I happen to walk into the store and they ask me what speakers I have, I tell them Paradigm reference and they leave me alone for some reason. :)
 

HienD

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Apr 15, 2003
Messages
189
I remember the sale men at my local electronics store trying to sell me this speaker when I got my dvd player a few years ago. The price for a basic dvd player from panasonic was $650cnd back then.(ouch). He said these speaker retailed for 1200cnd but I could have the set for 600cnd. There were 3 sale me trying to lure me in. I didn't know much about home audio at the time, but knew quite a bit about car audio, to know how bad these were. Wonder how much markup there was if they could give me 50% off and still be able to pay 3 guys commision.
 

Shion_ca

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 17, 2002
Messages
89
In all fairity, the sales attempts are goofy and underhanded but the speakers aren't all that bad. I've got a pair I had "discounted" from 2000 to 800. I also have a pair of Tannoy D700's, a Musical Fidelity A3Cr amp and pre. I tried using them for mains instead of rears once for fun. They don't do imaging very well, and I needed a good deal of toe-in plus they have a very distinctive sound that imprints itself on what they play (hey so do klipsch in my opinion). But you may find you actually like their sound signature on some tracks (kinda like a built in dsp)it's not a bad speaker. Plus I can abuse them at parties.

Just a note these were bought a while ago, but when I went back in the model I bought sounded worse. They'd replaced the midrange with a speaker equal in size to the woofer I think (probably to save money on economies of scale). Also don't bother with the built in amplified subs. I just picked up the aprox 5' ish non sub amped, speakers, the tweaters are a tad high for seated position but not bad. The sound is usually kind of neat if distinctive, but on one or two songs sounds absolutely awful. Try Michael Buble's CD track 1 or 2 (can't remember which) for some reason it sounds really really off. The singer sounds like he's part of the background, if you play it on the tannoy's he comes right out at you rich and full.

In any case the stuff isn't bad if you get a good deal on it, but your mileage may vary. Just I think people get a little too overly negative about the sound which isn't realistic. At discounted prices they'll match up with the panasonic/yamaha/infintiti etc speaker offerings favourably.
 

Andrew Pratt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 8, 1998
Messages
3,806
Scottie nice to see more manitoban's on the site! I refuse to walk in the door at Krazy Krazy:angry: They're even worse then Visions:thumbsdown:
 

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