This article was written on May 27, 2023.
Hello? This is engineer and singer-songwriter Jooyoung Kim.
The volume knob was pushed to the side when I bought a rack the other day, so for convenience’s sake, I’m going to review the Audient Nero monitor controller I purchased a few weeks ago.
- Appearance and Function
The exterior is just plain. It’s made of steel plate, so it doesn’t feel as light as plastic material, and the knob has a reasonable amount of resistance, so it’s just decent quality.
A total of 4 headphones can be connected. You can connect 1 headphone using the 1/8″ or 1/4″ jack on the front, and 3 headphones can be connected using the back.
A total of 4 inputs can be selected: Cue, Alt, Src1,2, and Alt
Alt can also be selected separately from 3 types: Optical, Coaxial, and Aux.
There are three outputs: Main, Alt 1, and 2. you can connect a subwoofer using the Sub terminal button. What was a little disappointing was that you couldn’t select the crossover frequency when choosing a subwoofer. The crossover band was a bit low, so when I connected my 8-inch subwoofer, it didn’t come out as powerfully.
In addition, a talkback microphone can be used, the input source can be set differently for each headphone jack, and there are functions such as Dim, Cut (Mute), Pol, and Mono. It would have been nice to have L/R conversion, but it was a bit disappointing.
- Measurement and Usage
Once an analog connection is made, the output is basically reduced by about 6dB. And both in terms of listening and measurement, the high frequencies were slightly cut off.
Still, I was surprised by the fairly decent performance. Fortunately, I think it’s worth it for the sake of convenience.
Also, basically, the overtones rise a little, but not to such a huge level. The picture on the right below shows that the headroom was exceeded and distortion occurred, so I thought it would be useful as long as it wasn’t in extreme situations.
I also wanted to measure Coaxial Digital, but an error occurred and measurement was not possible. However, basically, when you make a digital connection, the volume becomes lower than when you make an analog connection, and the analog connection sounds much more detailed than the digital connection.
I’m not sure because I haven’t disassembled it and looked inside, but I think it’s probably the DAC chip difference. To make a digital connection, you need to use Grace Design or Cranesong…^^;;
- Conclusion
There are no particular inconveniences while using it. The number of ins and outs and performance are just satisfactory, and I don’t think I’ll even think about changing it if nothing happens.
I think I can say that he’s ‘a fairly good friend.’
Jooyoung's Music Blog 