Neat Petite Classic
Contents
You have compact and you have … compact. Neat has rightfully named this speaker “Petite”. What a small speaker! To be honest, we were quite skeptical when we got our hands on them. Will it compete in this big field with serious competition? This really is the field where the battle can be fierce!
Like GoldenEar and for example Monitor Audio, Aurum Cantus and Elac, Neat uses an AMT for the treble. Neat, by the way, seems to have the AMT very well under control. On the back of this bass reflex speaker we see two ports. A small one and a large one. You can stuff / close these separately. Or both of course. This may help in the living room. We were able to play with both ports open.
For more information, please check Geoffrey’s complete review.
The sound
The Neats put you close to the orchestra in Beethoven. There is little ambience from the hall, but you can hear the contribution of the individual players in the orchestra. The sound of the violins and cellos is soft in tone, very British.
Mammal Hands on the Pass Labs leaves you in a bubble of sound. It sounds relaxed and smooth in the saxophone and rich in the piano sounds. The Neats are upfront; the sound comes to you. There is a lot of detail in the highs without becoming aggressive.
The Neats are fast, every tap on the tabla can be heard as an individual touch. In the piano solo, where high and low alternate quickly and a counter melody is played, the timing of the attacks is very precisely timed. With the Nilai, that bubble of sound is gone, but the flow in the music, the pacing, is very pleasant to listen to.
The Neats surprise with Sohn. The bass drone is brought tight and controlled, the speed and airiness of the speaker remains. The compression in the effects on his voice becomes a bit too much of a good thing, missing some space and layering that the other speakers did show. The effects of the guitar are again very good though and the synthesizers get a nice warm glow in their sound.
Conclusion: Neat puts down a fast, high-quality speaker whose price is definitely justified. A rounded midrange, clarity and transparency in the highs and a tightly controlled bass that reaches deep for such a small speaker and shows a lot of structure in the bass sound.
Neat Petite Classic measurements
The Neat measures differently from other speakers. It is not directly a completely neutrally tuned speaker, but we feel it is (partly) intentional. Consider the application of a BBC dip between 1000 and 4000 Hz. You can clearly see that. Since Neat is a British brand, it makes sense that they apply it. There is – because we are measuring straight ahead – an elevator in the treble. This will straighten out off-axis. So to our senses, the Neat has tuned a deliberately chosen signature into the speaker.
Distortion is nicely under control. Also with the AMT. Again, the woofer’s distortion is lower than the AMT which just breaks up at some point. However, it does remain low with the Neat: around 0.4%. Notable is the dominant 2nd harmonic. We like that. All in all, the Neat comes across as a very well designed speaker.
Despite the rich character and remarkably deep bass, the impedance remains friendly. At least about 4 Ohms. The peak in the middle is 50 Ohms…. which is high. We don’t really recommend a tube amp because of the coloration that’s going to cause in the midrange.
Specifications Neat Petite Classic
| Type | 2-weg, basreflex |
| Units | AMT tweeter, 16cm woofer |
| Range | 35 – 22000 Hz |
| Power handling | ? |
| Sensitivity | 87 dB |
| Impedance | 4 Ohm |
| Crossover | ? Hz |
| Size / Weight | 20 x 30 x 18cm (B_H_D), 8 Kg |
| Price | 2500 per paar exc stand |
