REVIEW

HI-FI WORLD

Small Is Beautiful Neat Acoustics new loudspeaker may be the smallest floorstander you have ever seen – but its sound is big and beautiful, says Jon Myles.

t’s fair to say that North East designed to be used on their sides, immediately springs to mind. of England-based loudspeaker standing just 13cm tall, 20cm wide and Small as the cabinet is, it’s firmly manufacturer Neat Acoustics 16.5cm deep and featuring a planar constructed and nicely finished. The is a company that likes to go ribbon tweeter. internal arrangement consists of two Downward firing bass about things in its own way. Its dimensions made it an ideal chambers, the upper containing the unit and large spikes desktop ‘speaker – but the sound same 10cm mid-bass and 50mm to maintain clearance. Not ones to slavishly follow was so good it was easily the equal of EMIT planar magnetic tweeter fashion, the Durham outfit doesn’t some standmounts twice its size. No of the original Iota, while the bring out a succession of models at wonder it quickly became a best-seller. larger, lower portion houses a the drop of a hat like some rivals, in Little surprise then, that Neat has 13.4cm downward-firing woofer the hope of garnering headlines and looked to build on that success with (making the use of the spikes the eyes and ears of potential buyers. a bigger brother to the Iota – but essential) in a rear-firing ported Instead its takes things a little slower they’ve done it in their own unique chamber. – only introducing products when style. The top portion of the convinced they add something to the So what we have is the Neat Iota is angled backwards at existing range. Alpha – a floorstander but probably the front to direct sound from So when it does announce a the smallest example of that breed the mid/bass unit and tweeter new loudspeaker you tend to sit up you’ll ever come across, as it stands towards the listener’s head and take notice. So it was when the just 48cm tall on its spikes. Add in height while the rear contains Iota appeared some four years ago. a width of 20cm and a depth of a single pair of binding posts. Undoubtedly unusual, the Iotas were just 16cm and the word diminutive The loudspeakers are also

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handed - so you can choose to have and a sweet, open quality that never units. They do, however, the tweeters on the outside or inside strays into harshness. Joni Mitchell’s have a naturalness and depending on taste (more of which dulcimer from the classic ‘Blue’ album toe-tapping vibrancy that later). was spine-tinglingly realistic with Pete simply breaths life into Single Neat quotes the impedance of the Kleinow’s pedal steel guitar having bite music. It’s a quality that wire ter- Alphas as 4 Ohms – so an amplifier of without any artificial zinginess. makes you return to minals decent power is needed to drive them As mentioned earlier the Alphas them time after time and a to high levels – see our Measured are handed loudspeakers – so you can and nod your head in Performance for detailed information. have the tweeters either on the inside appreciation of their small As the company’s products have a or outside. I found with the former talents. reflex long-standing reputation for working there was definitely a sharper image port well with Naim electronics I partnered with a very detailed presentation. The CONCLUSION inhabit them with the potent Supernait 2 latter, however, had a broader, more There’s no denying that the rear. amplifier fed by a Naim NDS streamer natural and expansive soundstage at £1385 the Neat Iota through a Chord 2Qute DAC with with a bit more air around acoustic Alphas are up against Tellurium Q Silver Diamond ‘speaker instruments. I’d advise experimen- some tough competition cables. tation in your own room to see which and at that price level suits you best. you can get a great many SOUND QUALITY Fortunately this is easy as the loudspeakers that offer a The Neat Iota Alphas belie their Neats are fairly easy-going in terms of lot more real estate for your money. proportions with the size of the placement. I found 30cm from a rear But don’t let that compact sound they produce. It’s a little discon- wall with a slight toe-in (10%) worked size put you off. These Iotas sound certing at first – your vision goes to best. Pushing them back 10cm brought anything but small and – more the little speaker sitting on the floor a little extra bass but it remained well- importantly – are an absolute joy to below you, yet the music is floating defined without tipping into a boomy listen to. If sheer musical communi- way above the top of the cabinets and sludge. cation is the measure of a good anchored firmly in front of your eyes. To be hyper-critical, the Iota loudspeaker then the new Neats You quickly forget about their size and Alphas don’t have quite the outright have it in spades. Pair them with good instead focus on the sound they are scale of some larger floorstanders amplification and they cannot fail to producing. with commensurately bigger drive put a smile on your face. And that sound is undeniably infectious and fun. Bass response is remarkably deep and firm while MEASURED PERFORMANCE soundstage and imaging has pin-point The Iota Alphas come in handed pairs, There’s only a small dip at crossover focus. giving flatest response with their ribbon (3kHz) between the small, forward firing On The Clash’s live ‘From Here tweeters on the outside, not inside – the six inch bass/midrange unit and the To Eternity’ (24/96) Terry Chimes’s most common arrangement. Our third- tweeter, so rendition of detail will be machine gun-like rat-a-tat drumming octave analysis of pink noise shows that good. at the start of ‘Janie Jones’ kicks positioned like this, treble is smooth but The downward firing bass unit in with real intensity while when Paul slightly raised, enough to make treble the base of the cabinet reaches down Simonon’s bass comes in the notes sound obvious, but not excessively to 55Hz and the small port provides are fast and tuneful with depth and bright. additional output down to 30Hz. So the substance to them. Ribbon tweeters sound fast, clean Iota goes low, but bass power, especially Switching to more spaced- HI-FI WORLD and pure; such emphasis is commonly from the small port, will not be great. out grooves of Jah Wobble and chosen by designers and is subjec- Acoustic damping is very broad, or red Bill Laswell’s ‘Radioaxiom - A Dub tively a good compromise. port trace shows, and the impedance NEAT IOTA ALPHA Transmission’ shows just how well the FREQUENCY RESPONSE trace confirms. The Iota will play a bass £1385 three drive units integrate together. Green - driver output tune well, without waffle or overhang. This CD has some deep, pulsing bass It’s low frequency output is smooth too, Red - port output OUTSTANDING - amongst with various electronic effects plus so notes will be reproduced evenly. the best. cornet and trumpet lines floating Impedance measured 6 Ohms above. overall, but across the low frequency VERDICT The Iota Alphas picked out these spectrum this is a 4 Ohm loudspeaker. Small but incredibly potent. layers precisely, allowing me to hear In spite of drawing current it was These new Neats are a terrific into the mix – but at the same time insensitive, as small speakers usually package that bring life to every genre of music. melded it together as a coherent are, delivering a low 83dB sound whole so there was no disconnect pressure level at 1m from one nominal FOR between the bass, mid and treble. Not Watt (2.8V) of input. Similarly sized - fast, rich bass. all downward-firing woofers do this, IMPEDANCE stand mounters commonly deliver around - detailed treble. some sounding a little disconnected 86dB so some power is needed to go - superb stereo imaging. - toe-tapping sound. and boomy which can rob music of loud, at least 60 Watts. pace. The Iota Alpha is an interesting AGAINST The Alphas 13.4cm bass unit, design with a well honed performance, - need power. by contrast, is extremely pacy so it measurement shows. It is accurate, will pushes music along with an assured have low colouration and well controlled Neat Acoustics tempo. The tweeter is also well- +44 (0)1833 631021 bass, but is insensitive. NK www.neat.co.uk judged, having plenty of dynamic range

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