Advice on speaker selection…starting with Neat speakers

Hi-Fi Corner
101

I think it would be a big mistake to purchase speakers which produce overpowering bass on half your albums and then try to mitigate that afterwards. The bass issue is likely to be primarily interaction between speakers and room, so you might try moving them around to see how much that improves things. But, frustrating though it is, I’d continue auditioning until you find a pair of speakers (stand-mounts?) that sound great in your room. Otherwise, you could end up with years of frustration.

Roger

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102

Wise words!

103

If they have overpowering bass on half your albums, don’t even think of buying them. It would be absolute madness. There is nothing worse than boomy bass and if they are that bad then no amount of fancy feet will sort them out. Forget them and look elsewhere.

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104

Yes, been there, done that, got that tshirt in spades!

As some albums sound great, I do think it’s worth seeing if these isolators will do the trick. I have nothing to lose by doing that.

My old Elas were - well, are - fine in terms of bass, but of course they’re little baby speakers in comparison. Having gone this far down the rabbit hole I’d like to treat myself to something that’s a real step up after thirty years and not go back to them.

105

Fix your “floor “ issues first then think about speakers

Otherwise you’ll be spinning your wheels forever

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106

Provided you can try them on loan.

I’ve been in a similar place with speakers which gave a lot of enjoyment but also had some flaws including bass boom. Eventually I found I was not playing half my collection and sold them at a loss. Since then, I have only bought gear that sounded right from the off and used cables, support etc to fine tune the system rather than correct major flaws.

But we all build our systems in different ways. I hope you resolve the issue satisfactorily and really enjoy the results.

Roger

107

Have you tried the Ekstra instead of the Orkestra?
Also, if you haven’t, try the proac d20 the variant with the dome tweeters if you’re set against ribbons.

108

No-one seems to have Ekstras near me; people - well dealers - just said the Orkestras are so much better, Ekstras weren’t worth bothering with. While that may not be true and is clearly a matter of opinion, it doesn’t solve me getting to hear them! :smiley:

The only Proacs I heard were some stand mount ones which I thought were rubbish. If I can’t get the Orkestras working for me, I’ll try and hunt out some better ones.

I’ve listened to many different makes in this hunt: Dali, Monitor Audio, ATC, Spendors and more. The Neats are head and shoulders above all but the PMCs for my taste. I think being a musician I’m very much in sync with the chap who runs Neat who is also one apparently. Whereas I want ATC neutrality in my recording monitors, I want fun and excitement in my hi-fi and Neat gives that in spades.

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109

I suspect the principal difference between the orkestras and the pmc is where the bass port is. Neats fire straight down, pmc comes out of the front. So I suspect the speakers that will work best in your room are not the neats.

Another one to try is Kerr acoustics - visibly they look like half orkestra / half pmc.

IMG_8601
IMG_86012500×3312 1.6 MB

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110

Ah, someone else on a different site suggested these when I originally said I wanted Ela-vibe speakers, but they’re way out of my price range. :slight_smile:

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111

Had the opportunity to demo the Neat Momemtum Jet stand mounted speaker for the first time yesterday at my local dealers ,an enjoyable listen , for me the Jet has a very detailed sound with amazing bass depth for such a small speaker , excellent gloss finish but at a premium over the standard model.
Last visit we tried the Explorers so we did the same this time, when the Explorers were connected up you got an increase in the sound stage by some margin which I enjoyed, for me they provide a more relax listen probably an easier going delivery if that makes sense but they do miss out on the finer details and the deeper bass of the Jet, for me a combination of the two would of been an excellent match but I still find as enjoyable as the Neats are the bass for me is still a little on the full side, I would of liked to have tried them at higher volume levels just to see if they tightened up at all and I did notice especially with the Jet that they do seem to need more power to achieve a similar sound level compared to my PMC’s which did surprise me.
All round an excellent demo, setup this time was with OC electronics which was really useful as the last two demo’s had the new NC kit up front.
So could I live with the Neats, probably, Orkestras, Explorers or the Momentum Jets all gave good results but still not totally convinced, I would really like to hear some Proac’s and ATC speakers before having to decide.
The only speaker that I have heard recently that ticked all the boxes for me were Kerr’s but sadly way out of my budget.
The journey continues.

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112

I quite liked ATC SMC40s, but they take some serious driving and are just a shade too neutral for me for hi-fi. Seriously impressive speakers in terms of detail and a full sound.

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113

Ah sorry didn’t realise the Kerr were £££.

Another contender might be the Russell k red 120 - again a bottom front port rather than firing straight down.

The newest neat range have a plinth right at the bottom so the downwards port doesn’t go direct to the floor. Try neat elite classic.

Also fyne audio f501sp.

Or a bit left field - standmounts rather than floor standers. I’m guessing on your budget based on the £ of the orkestra, maybe epos es14n would be worth trying.

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114

Alternative to Kerr Acoustics and equally as capable are AlChris Audio…
The TX9s are in my main system.

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115

You mentioned that you’d listened to some Spendors - did you try their A7?

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116

Happy Sunday to you @silverback
Just read through your thread (again) to catch up and re-cap on your latest speaker journey to date. So, was left wondering where you have got to ?

See you are looking for a more “compact” speaker solution, with maybe a budget of around £5k
Maybe, part of your challenge, is coming from Naim NAP 250 DR → PMC 26, which I can imagine as being quite an impressive combination to replace?

Also, see you have been impressed by 606 Titan.
Agree, these are a seriously impressive speaker. Like you, ultimately ruling these out, because they also needed a decent power amp ( to be fair to them ) and so were beyond our more modest budget. In your case, your 250 DR might suffice, so you’re left with cost - new or maybe ex demo - and the physical size. But, they would work a treat close to the rear boundary.

Looks like you are maybe currently considering Neat options, as a front runner ?
You’ve also mentioned a desire to try Pro-Ac and PMC models - have you done this yet?

Happy to share a few thoughts from our own journey - through 2023 & 2024 - finding a compact floor standing speaker with a budget of c.£5k and a very similar Naim system as you. Amongst a whole bunch of options, seriously considered Pro-ac speakers and PMC 23 / 24 passive and also active options. FWIW, you may remember, settled on PMC 23 as active. Happy to swap notes.

BW
R

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117

Hi stavrose no the only floor stander we tried was the D7.2 which I know is very popular but just didn’t do it for me but I could add the A7 to the list, to be honest I’m not ruling anything out at the moment.

I’m waiting with anticipation for the new firmware update hopefully it will restore my system to how it sounded before, one of the main reasons I haven’t had anymore speaker demo’s, even noticed it on a dealers setup but he didn’t seem to hear the same issues but it could be my hearing :wink:.

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118

Happy Sunday to you ratrat, I will come back to you later as I have a 25kg bulldog determined to get me to take he out for a walk, it’s getting difficult too type with her climbing all over me at the moment :+1:

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119

That’s so familiar :joy:

Enjoy.
Sundays are for chilling, listening to music, (and walking the dog). :+1:
Maybe gardening too.

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120

Afternoon again ratrat dog calmed down now so will continue our catch up.
Tried a good selection of Neat speakers from the Elite classic which I found for a small floor stander were very good, this was with the new NC setup of 222/250 and the new power supply so somewhat different than what we have at home.
Then the dealer suggested we try the Majistra which I really liked especially the bass performance from such a relatively small stand mounted speaker, very pleasant.
Then we changed dealers as I wanted to listen to the Explorer, an unusual style of speaker, very room friendly if a bit of a marmite figure, again very pleasing, excellent sound stage which I wasn’t expecting, for me a smoother delivery than the Majistra descent bass nothing excessive, really a very rounded speaker but with an unusual appearance.

Next the dealer offered us the chance to listen to the Okestra which sounded exactly like the Majistra but with more bass range, a large speaker probably taller than our PMC’s, not really in my price range and larger than I was looking for, one of the requests from Mrs.SB they had to be smaller and less room dominating.

One Neat I wanted to really listen to was the new Momemtum Jet which the dealer didn’t stock but later on in the demo he/they suggested that it could be possible to borrow a pair from Neat, I thought that’s pretty impressive service, so the dealers organized the loan and we went back a couple of weeks later to give them a listen.
Very nice, superbly finished in a dark red type of ebony high gloss finish looked the same size as the Majistra’s, the gloss finish is not standard, I think it was somewhere around £800-£1k more so not cheap especially when you factor in a set of stands.
Sound wise I really liked these, excellent levels of detail, amazing bass performance from such a compact unit, very impressed, we compared them to the Explorer which are a similar price both have their strengths would really depend which sounded better with my OC kit, to be fair to the dealer on the first demo he used the NC range, 222/250 and the power supply but the second demo he hooked up a NDX2, Supernait 3 and the OC 250dr so not massively different than what we had at home, enjoyed this demo very much.

There is always a but and one of the buts for me was the bass, maybe I have been spoiled by the transmission line bass of the PMC’s but Neat bass sounds slightly softer, fuller, not as tight or punchy which is what I really like.
Detail and top end wise the Momemtum’s dont miss much and the Majistra is not far behind.

So where does that leave things now, at the moment I need to wait to hear the new firmware that is due out before the end of the month because unfortunately I have struggled as have many since updating the software and unless the new update fixes the issue I will have to totally rethink my next steps.

Its clear that the PMC’s can take alot more from the electrics than I provide them with at the moment, so if we get a sound issue fix with the new firmware I may hang onto the PMC’s and improve the front end rather than look for a cure with a new pair of speakers, not sure , will see how things pan out but for the moment the brakes are on.

One thing that did crop up which I hadnt even thought about was when I was trying to track down a Neat dealer with some Explorers , when I found one I asked if he could give me an idea of trade in value of my 26’s and to my surprise his suggestion was why not swop them out for a new pair of the Twenty5 26i’s, he would give me a descent trade in value and discount the new speaker by a large amount, all this did was confuse the issue at first but then I thought that it maybe an option worth looking at.

So as you can see, got in a few demo’s but more speakers I would like to hear but only after we see how things pan out nearer the end of the month with the new update.

Bit long winded I apologise for that and maybe not that clear as to the direction I’m heading but I kinda know what’s what if maybe the above post doesn’t make it that obvious, happy reading :joy: anyway.

P.S. The active PMC Twenty5 23 i are also on the dem list along with the ATC SCM 40’s and a few others :rofl: :joy:

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