Neat Iota Alpha

The little Neats Iota Alpha’s aren’t the last word on detail but they do work very well and for me their form factor works really well in the room I want to use them in.

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Just finished a home demo and decided on the Neats over the ATC SCM11. Beautiful sound, fun and engaging.

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Is that a sub to the left?

It is. Was there for the ATCs and actually matched with them quite well. Haven’t needed it for the Neats so will likely move it on.

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Interesting. Thanks for that.
Gary

I was amazed by the bass on those things

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Agree. The bass isn’t massive, it is just right, doesn’t dominate. It is surprising because of the size of the speaker (I was surprised when I first saw them, let alone heard them). My room is probably a bit to big for them too, but they still perform superbly. Demos going back today and new ones with American walnut finish arriving at the same time.

I have them and they blow my B&W CM6 speakers out the water.

Running them with an SN3 / NAP 250DR.

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Great looking room. Are they Alpha’s or Explorers? They look bigger than Apha’s.

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These are the smaller Alphas.

The camera angle is making them look larger than they are

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After reading the forums and auditioning some speakers, I’ve finally made the purchase and the Iota Alphas have arrived.

Loving it already and it sounds very nice even straight out of the box without running in. Bass is more than I thought it would have, and perhaps a little bit too much given that the right speaker is near a corner. Does using a bung on the rear port help and is it advisable??

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I dont for my Alphas, but for my standard Iotas (which are poorly positioned) I had too much boom, so used a bit of decorators sponge in each port. Worked fine and really helped.

Positioning speakers is obviously the best solution. But where that’s not possible, plugging the ports is a worthwhile option. And decorator’s sponge is so cheap, it’s a low risk thing to experiment with

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Will try for sure. Thanks.

I take it that the Alphas can’t be positioned right up against a wall like SBL?

Well, mine are about 32 cm from the front wall.

But the problem for me is the right side is in a corner so there’s a bit too much bass there - seems stuffing the port a sock is helping :sweat_smile:, but need to try a few more tracks to see how it goes.

You could try a free-trial-or-return set of Isoacoustic Gaias on the Neats, and/ or hanging a rug on the wall in that corner if side-wall refections are the big issue.

FWIW, we found 20cm to sides and behind worked pretty well on a solid floor - anything less and the bass got a bit big and a bit loose.

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Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, apartment realities mean 20cm to the side is not possible for me, so likely will have to experiment a bit with rugs, bungs on the port, etc.

Didn’t realize the Isoacoustic Gaias might help though :thinking:

The Gaias are an attempt to help the effect, by tightening bass, not fix the cause. That’s probably also true (perhaps more so) for the bungs.

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Definitely need to trial them first. How they’d interact with that downward firing bass unit is not clear. Be interesting to find out.

Roger