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April 2, 2012 - 9:49am
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Neat Acoustics
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sounding Spendor SA1. Don't know where you could listen to them in and around Indianapolis though. Bluebird Music in Toronto is the US distributor.
http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/spendor_sa1_loudspeaker/index.html
Thanks for the comment, Jackfish. Have you heard the Neat Petite SX to compare the two? Any thoughts on my question regarding "musicality" as it applies to that speaker?
Haven't heard the Neat Petite SX, but Spendor and Harbeth are always at the top of the British heap.
Among the top of the heap, sure, but from what I understand both Spendor and Harbeth have a distinct character that some people like and some people don't. That's why I was a little surprised at the outright "better sounding" statement particularly when you hadn't heard the Neats. In fact, I haven't read anything that would suggest that Neat isn't right at the top of the British heap as well.
All that said, I will certainly keep the Spendors in mind in my quest for music and I will hopefully get a chance to audition them as well.
Hi, I have a pair of the the very first few Petites ever made (the 8th production pair in fact). These date from 1989 and have been used daily from then untill now. They are ridiculous looking little things, about the size of a shoe box and all black,(they dont even have proper grills) visually there's nothing impressive about them although the build quality is very good. Surely something so small and plain can't sound any good, no they dont sound good, they sound sublime! I've tried other speakers over the years just to satisfy my curiosity but the Petites are still in my system and probably will be untill they go to Audio heaven. It all depends on what you want from your system, if you want something to impress your friends with beautifull modern furniture, thunderous bass, super detailed highs, monitor quality midrange then they are not for you. If you want something to listen to your Hi Fi on, they are not for you. If, however you want to listen to MUSIC in your home with something approaching the same emotional involvement as attending alive event they might fit the bill. They have the ability to make you forget that you're listening to a collection of electrical and accoustical components. The designers of the speakers are themselves accomplished musicians and the speakers are voiced by ear, by human beings listening to music. They are relatively un fussy as to placement, they are not too difficult to drive (I have a 50 watt per channel class 'A' solid state Amp) and they work well in all the listening rooms I have tried them in. I've been a recorded music fan for nearly 40 years and for the first 10 or 15 years I went for components that had the best specifications on paper, I ended up with a system which could literally shake the house (IMF transmission lines about the size of a coffin and 200 watt amps). They sounded great and very impressive for an hour or so but after that I went and watched TV.