My application for Sat-2 is to attenuate very hot output of my interface and make it appropriate for monitors. I connected Cranborne 500R8 to Genelec M040 monitors. And even with monitor switches set on low sensitivity, I’ve got very loud sound. There is no volume controls on monitors. So I needed some PAD to make a nice gain staging of monitor path. What can I say that quality of sound remained intact as far as I can judge.
Previously I used TC Electronic Level Pilot which is good as a mid-class product. But if you want to be sure that your signal is 100% transparent on way to your monitors, Radial’s solution is way more close approach. With Level Pilot I felt just a little cloudness in low mids and bass was foggy and smeared too. But talking about Radial Engineering, it fixed it. I felt improvement instantly. I suspect that Sat-2 is way more phase-coherent. It stated in manual that there is 0° of phase deviations on bass frequencies. And for Level Pilot the characteristics are simply not published (what a facepalm!). So I feel very convinced with the quality of Radial.
About features: maybe it is nice to have them. I don’t need these switches anyway because I’ve got those controls on my interface. For me Sat-2 is just “set and forget” unit. So I’d be happy to have less controls (I really need just only attenuator volume). Maybe without these additional features this box will be even more transparent (120% of transparency? Hhha!) and bit cheaper. But I’m totally happy with this purchase.
