Just interested to see if Neat Acoustics are still on the radar around these parts. Not a lot of posts or system pics. recently have Neat speakers represented. Have they fallen out of favour or are those after an isobaric speaker fix moving over to Kudos ?
Really interested to see what people think. I would love to find out what an isobaric designed speaker offers over a more conventional design ands if Neat still fits in with naim ownership these days. I can get hold of Neat speakers in my country, but sadly Kudos are not represented, and have never been for some reason. The Neat XL6 has had a very recent review in a hi fi mag and the reviewer was almost awesruck in praise for them.
From my thread, referred to by @Eoink, you’ll gather that Neat Acoustics are very much still on my radar.
Since starting my Naim journey, I’ve moved through their range of speakers, and, for me, there’s just a certain synergy between their products and Naim kit.
It came as something of a surprise to find them seeing off ATC actives, but, as @Polarbear says, their sheer musicality and ability to convey the music on an emotional level is something quite special.
Dave, I did read in that thread that the Neat was preferred to the ATC active. I am not familiar with isobaric speakers, do they need more room to breath than a conventional speaker ? Really interested to know how 1x main tweeter and 2x super tweeters combine. Are reasonably live sounding rooms off the cards because of this ?
As all the above. Plenty of love for my pair of XL6 speakers and no desire to audition alternates. A very natural and musical sounding speaker in a pretty compact package.
Many of the Neats, including my MF 9’s, are rear ported, so they do require to be stood off the wall / corners, to avoid bass boom.
As for the tweeters, the two super tweeters on top of the cabinet aren’t so much “heard” as “sensed”, in as much as they augment the main tweeter.
My music room is glazed on one of the longer sides, but having full length vertical blinds down it’s length seems to have worked.
You ought to arrange a home demo of some Neats, just to hear how good they can be, in the right room.
Will do Dave, sorry one more question, is a nearfield listening set up possible with these ? I can only have 2.5m from speaker axis to listening chair to play with or will that unique super tweeter set up mess with this.
Difficult to say, as my own listening position is about 5m away from the speakers.
I could be wrong, but I think it was only the Ultimatum series speakers which have the super tweeters, so it would still be worthwhile to have a listen to some of the others.
you should never discount Neat speakers, they are very musical speakers and work well with Naim amps. Like Dave, I had a pair of Neat Ultimatum MF9’s on the end of my Naim 552/500 and they were possibly the best speakers I have owned. I have heard the current Ultimatums and rate them highly.
Like any speaker, they will be room dependant and any speaker benefits from having room to breath in but equally they can work close to rear walls if needed to.
Interesting, more Neat owners here than I thought.
I have emailed Neat and given a detailed description of my room, area I have to work with & system and asked if I am in the ball park with the XL6. The compact size if this model relative to other brands of similar frequency specs. is very, very attractive.
Neat XLS with 300 DR and 252 are fantastic. I had ProAc D2 previously which are now part of the surround sound system. I didn’t audition any other speaker when I upgraded to the Neats.
I run a pair of Neat Motive SX2 speakers from my entry level 5Si system after downgrading from a slimline active system running Credos. Never looked back. I take no notice of my system whatsoever, only to what tune is playing and to what i’m choosing to put on next.
Just to add to glasnaim’s view, one of the tweeters in my MF 9’s failed a few months ago, and whilst Neat would have been more than happy to carry out an instant repair, the logistics of my transporting them, (these are not small speakers!), meant that, once I had convinced Bob that my soldering skills were up to the job, a replacement tweeter, six of the foam surrounds, and the silicone needed to fix them, were posted out to me the same day.
It gets even better, as, no matter how much I protested, Bob insisted that no payment would be accepted, so instead I made a donation to my favourite charity.
So, in terms of customer service, Neat are way better than could reasonably expected, and Bob Surgeoner is most certainly one of the good guys.
I forgot to add that i can’t wait to upgrade my electronics and to hear even more out of them. Also if i were ever to be in the market for another pair of speakers then Neat will certainly be my first port of call. My first ever pair have certainly way exceeded my expectations.
I’ve heard various demos of Naim and Neat and always been very impressed until I tried XLSs and XL6 in my lounge and just couldn’t control the bass. I was so disappointed.
