Welcome to Neat at Ultimate
Our first contact with Bob Surgeoner and Paul Ryder, the design team at Neat Acoustics, came about when they contacted Linn Products to procure an LP-12 to demonstrate their new Motive SE2 at the Bristol Sound & Vision Show in February 2010, Linn recommended us as the best place and we were happy to loan them one of demonstration LP-12SE for the show.
I was intrigued to meet Bob & Paul, being a former loudspeaker designer myself (1968 – 1981), because of the impact their Neat Petite design had had upon the industry in the early 1990’s, considering the continuing work carried out by this team in the following two decades I could not help but be struck by their modesty and expertise, driven by both being accomplished musicians their goal is one of musical excellence rather than technical or marketing hype. The designs currently in the range span; IB (infinite baffle), Ported and even, certainly not for the faint hearted or incompetent, Isobaric loading designs, all superbly executed.
Design & Sound
Designs are voiced and honed to perfection following hundreds of our hours of listening and their musical ear and personal experience of live music, performing, listening and recording, must be invaluable and led to the inevitable question of, what equipment they used in their own listening tests.
Neat and Naim
Unsurprisingly they use Naim electronics, among others and a personal favourite seems to be the Naim Supernait, albeit with the addition of the optional HiCap2 especially when formulating the entry level designs.
Hearing for the first time at the Bristol Sound & Vision Show their new Motive SE2, I was completely bowled over by it and arrangements were made for Bob to come and visit us and show us the range.
The Motive SE2 sounded even better here literally blowing away the competition and proving to be an ideal partner for the new NaimUnity & UnityQute. Step up the electronics to the Naim Supernait/Hicap2 combinations and their new Petite SX, Elite SX and Momentum 3i & 4i truly begin to shine.
Neat XL6
We are very pleased to announce that we have now received our new Neat Ultimatum XL6
demonstration units, fresh from the box last week they sounded truly amazing, now that we have run them in a little more they are exhibiting musical reproduction beyond my wildest expectations, although a passive design the explosive dynamics are right up there with the old Naim DBL (Driven actively with 3 x NAP-500s), whilst the bass remains tuneful, extended and formidably tight thanks in no small measure to Bob’ s genius in implementing an isobaric configuration to deliver the low frequency. That this has all been achieved in such a relatively small loudspeaker, just 98cm tall is astounding, and it’ s a must hear loudspeaker with strong PIA (Person In Authority) approval rating.