Neat Acoustics Petite Classic

I have a hunch that I know what you’re thinking having clapped eyes on the pictures of the Neat Acoustics Petite Classic that accompany this review. This is another example of a company mining its heritage to hit us with a double whammy of rose-tinted nostalgia about how things used to be better and ensuring anyone that either never owned a pair of the original product or who sold it and regretted it gets to make good on the error. The reality is a little more complex than that.

The Petite itself needs little introduction. Developed by Bob Surgeoner in the late 1980s as a speaker that was intended to combine the positive attributes of a few designs on the market while minimising their downsides. A star turn by the prototypes at the Penta show in 1990 saw ‘North Eastern Audio Traders’ become ‘Neat Acoustics’ and go into the speaker business full time. The Petite remained in the Neat lineup until 2016 and, in the first key difference to some other retro projects we’ve seen recently, it evolved continuously over that time.

Not so limited run

Then, in 2021 a strictly limited run of Petite 30th Anniversary models were produced. This differed from the original and fourth versions of the Petites by introducing an Air Motion Transformer in place of a conventional dome tweeter, further evolving the Petite platform. The AMT driver is, in fact, more reminiscent of the EMIT quasi-ribbon used in the second and third iterations of the design. Such was the enthusiasm for the Anniversary however, Neat decided to adapt the design to full production. Crucially, the drivers and crossover make the move from the Anniversary which means that the AMT is partnered with a 150mm polymer mid bass driver that crosses over at 3.8kHz. Connection is via a single set of terminals; unlike the Anniversary, bi-wiring is not supported.

The use of an Air Motion Transformer reflects Neat’s considerable accrued experience with the type in recent years. In the Petite Classic, there has been no attempt to give it an extended upper frequency response and Neat cites an upper figure of 22kHz. The output of that mid bass is more eyebrow raising though. Neat is a fan of quoting ‘typical in room response’ rather than a fixed roll off figure. In the case of the Petite Classic, that in room number is no less than 30Hz which is an arresting amount of shove for a cabinet this size. This has been achieved without giving the Petite Classic the sort of measurements that require biblical power to make good on. Sensitivity is quoted at 87dB/w which feels believable, and impedance is between 4 and 6 ohms which is reasonably benign too.

The cabinet itself is the closest link to the original Petite. It has been reduced in height from the one used in the Anniversary and is now the same size as the original. This gives the Petite a distinctive appearance. Where many modern stand-mounts are enormously deep, the Petite, at a mere 18 centimetres front to back, a distance less than it is wide, feels completely different. This cabinet has two rear ports. A larger foam filled one vents the tweeter assembly while a smaller one directly underneath helps the mid bass driver towards that ambitious 30Hz target. While it doesn’t go in for the ‘hewn from a solid object’ feel that some companies go in for, the whole speaker feels usefully substantial.

White Sensation

The Petite Classic is available in black and white sheen finishes, a change from the piano gloss of the Anniversary that both helps the latter to feel more special and the Classic to be easier to produce. Something I rarely say but that really applies here is that the white finish looks sensational. There is enough black on the cabinet to mean that an appreciable level of contrast is achieved, and the result is very handsome indeed. It also looks modern. The Petite Classic might be Neat revisiting its very beginnings but the period in question wasn’t that long ago and the combination of the finish and that Air Motion Transformer mean that the Petite Classic feels more like a loving homage rather than a shameless reproduction.

This perception of homage applies to the sound as well. It has been a very long time since I listened to an original pair of Petites so direct comparisons are fraught, but the Petite Classic has attributes that the original could never dream of demonstrating. This manifests itself most readily in the upper registers. Neat’s experience with tweeters of this nature gives the Petite Classic an airiness that borders on the surreal for a speaker of this size. The glorious, retro tinged Neptune by The Olympians [Daptone] is recreated in a space that is far beyond the limited scale of the cabinets themselves. Not only is there a level of width that has been achieved without the resulting stereo image sounding diffuse, but the Petite Classic also manages to create a sense of height to their presentation that feels consistently repeatable.

The handover to the mid-bass driver is absolutely seamless and together, the Neat delivers commendable tonal realism that has a distinctively ‘Neat’ quality to it. This distinctive ‘fingerprint’ creates a speaker that is unfailingly believable but absolutely unshowy with it. You can point to other designs digging more detail out of recordings or being sweeter or more vivid but the balance that Neat has long struck is to create speakers that do justice to your best recordings while ensuring you keep listening to the less than perfect ones too. You can push the Petite Classic as hard as your living situation will allow with Nirvana’s Nevermind [DGC/Universal] and the Neat finds a streak of civility where there generally isn’t one.

When you’re done with that (and, civilised as the Neat is, I was… quickly), the Neat effortlessly pivots to sounding like hi-fi. Dead Can Dance’s Dionysus [PIAS] is reproduced with all the scale and presence you could reasonably wish for. Neat’s promise of 30Hz in room will ultimately hinge on the room in question but there is a truly impressive amount of bass extension on offer given the size of the speaker creating it. This bass arrives as the logical conclusion of a wonderfully even response too rather than a sort of freak blip long after the rest of the output has ceased to be audible.

Black Steel

What’s impressive though is that none of these very welcome attributes represents the best bit about the Petite Classic. That comes when you stop objectively examining what it does, put on something you know intimately and wind the volume on. All the virtues it possesses are harnessed to the overriding ability to sound fun. The same joy that had people ducking into the room of a company they’d never heard of to listen to the original Petite is present here. Pushing the Petite Classic with Tricky’s ‘Black Steel’ [Maxinquaye, 4th & B’way] everything I’ve said that it can do is present and correct but the chances are you won’t care about any of it because you will be swept away by the sheer enthusiasm it demonstrates.

There’s something else too and it puts the Neat in a slightly different category to some of the other ‘revival-fi’ products we’ve seen pop up. The original was designed to complement the flat earth and… still fairly flat earth… models of the time. These amps haven’t gone away in the ensuing thirty years. They’ve usually softened their approach slightly and learned some new tricks, but they still leave dealers in healthy numbers and this latest Petite is still the perfect foil for them. A significant amount of testing was undertaken on the new Cyrus Classic Integrated and the pairing was a very fruitful one. You don’t need to make allowances to see the Neat shine in a way that some other devices might.

What this adds up to is something that is slightly different to what you might have anticipated when you saw the pictures. The Neat is a faithful homage to its ancestor, but it has achieved that while being absolutely of the moment too. It doesn’t require a carefully curated selection of mid-century furniture to sit happily in most listening rooms and the performance it offers is thoroughly modern and consistently impressive. What it does with effortless brilliance, is capture the spirit of the original; an innate joy to the business of making music that made listening an event regardless of what you chose to listen to. The new Petite does this with the same assurance and the result is a bonafide modern classic that needs to be on any shortlist anywhere near the price point.

Technical specifications

• Type Two-way stand mount rear ported loudspeaker
• Drivers One 50mm Air Motion Transformer, One 150mm Polymer mid bass
• Frequency Response 30Hz–22kHz
• Impedance 4–6 Ohms
• Sensitivity 87dB linear for one watt at one metre
• Recommended Amplifiers 25–150 watts
• Dimensions (H×W×D) 30 × 20 × 18cm
• Weight 7kg per speaker
• Price £1,995 per pair

Manufacturer

Neat Acoustics

neatacoustics.com

+44(0)1833 631021

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