They say that good things come in threes… And that good things come in small packages. Well, recently here at Audio T Reading an opportunity came along for me to audition three high-quality and relatively premium little loudspeakers. This all happened a bit by chance, with all three speakers arriving like buses at the same time!

First up came the peppy Neat Petite Classic, drafted-in for a customer who was very keen to hear them. Then came the gorgeously finished Audio Note AX One, first unveiled at The Bristol Show 2023. And last but certainly no means least, the Harbeth P3ESR XD, kindly loaned by Gareth, our Reading store manager, from his personal collection of hi-fi goodies. Out of curiosity, I packed up the Neat Petite Classic to trial at home, but all the while thinking – “Why am I bothering? There’s no way these little ‘loudies’ can hold a torch to my own larger ATC SCM 11 standmounts”. As it turned out, they didn’t just hold a torch… They drew a sword and jousted with my 11’s all the way! In disbelief, I was left ruminating… “Why haven’t I considered premium smaller speakers before?” Please allow me to share with you more on this newest, most enlightening Audio T adventure…

A bit of backstory

Since acquiring my ATC SCM11 speakers, I’ve been so overjoyed with them that I’ve often wondered what direction I would take if I were to move on from them. How would I bring about an improvement in presentation and overall enjoyment? Just go bigger and pricier, surely. It seems logical that bigger gives you more! Proceeding with this one-dimensional perspective, my attentions turned to one of the best standmount speakers in our shop, the dynamic Dynaudio Special Forty, and also a floorstanding option like the sublime Spendor A7. Both of them sound fab in our main demonstration room… but in my own smaller, more flimsily built living room, the performance of both were hampered and could not reach anywhere near their full potential. With simply arranged acoustic music, they sounded great, but with more rhythmic or propulsive genres I found that both were over-exciting my living room and delivering the dreaded bass boom. Please let me be clear, the fault lays with the limitations of my room and not with the Special Forty or A7 speakers. I highly recommend listening to them as they’re both first-rate. Going back to my tunnel-visioned approach, I had lined up copious other large loudspeakers for audition as surely one of them would give me the ‘more’ factor I would be after. Then, as if by divine intervention, the following three little lovelies interrupted my one-track journey at just the right time…

NEAT PETITE – SHE’S A REALLY SWEET – CLASSIC

With the Neat Petite Classic atop of SolidSteel SS-6 stands and occupying the space in my room where I’m so conditioned to seeing my larger ATC SCM11, the Petite Classic by comparison felt like looking at a piece of paper side-on! On viewing, they just weren’t there. But upon listening, it’s as if they were everywhere – projecting high-quality, clean sound to all corners of my room. The air motion transformer (AMT) tweeter is incredible at conveying high-frequency information. Vocals sound hauntingly detailed and the ambience of the room where the original recording took place is delivered with absolute certainty – be it in a concert hall, or in a studio, all of the electricity and air of the venue came through distinctly, with great height and width. The big surprise with the Petite Classic is the sizeable bass on offer; it went surprisingly deep, was lightning fast, and seemed to belie the size of the speaker cabinets. This bass witchcraft, combined with the Petite Classic’s agility and detail retrieval, made for an engaging listening experience. Taking care with placement and the tuning of the rear ports only helped to make things better. The Neat Petite Classic were brighter than my ATC SCM 11, but not harshly so, and while my 11’s have more scale and authority, the Neats do what they do so well that I was mostly blissfully unaware of anything I was missing.

AUDIO NOTE AX ONE – NO AX TO GRIND WITH THESE

Whilst still buzzing from the previous dinky speaker discovery, these little beauties – the Audio Note AX One – turned up in the shop in a luscious European walnut finish. At first I wondered what that port was doing on the front baffle so close to the tweeter and mid-bass unit. I need not have worried; Audio Note know what they’re doing and take pride in doing things their own way. And without further ado, I took the AX One home… And my gosh what a treat it was to hear this compact communicator. The AX One a little firecracker! If you’re familiar with Audio Note, you’ll be aware of their musicality comes first approach. When listening to Audio Note equipment, three words tend to spring to mind: tone, timbre and swagger. The AX One has all the precision of a studio monitor, but with that beautiful Audio Note tone. They are one of the most informative speakers I’ve heard in my room, and that sweet tone did a great job of distracting me from their unquestionable ability to dissect a recording. Switching to a heavier stand helped with balancing the energetic treble and allowed the AX One to shine. This is a lively, fast and above all musical speaker that can place images in the foreground and background with exactitude. On heavier stands, they weren’t shy in the bass department either – okay, not quite the low-end that had my ornaments rattling! But the bass on offer exhibited texture and substance, if not the outright scale of my ATC SCM 11. I did, however, find the AX One slightly more revealing in my room.

P3ESR XD – NOT A CAR REG PLATE, BUT A SWEET HARBETH

By now, I’d all but forgotten about the existence of bigger speakers and found myself routinely chewing Gareth’s ear off about the joys of little “loudies”. Seeing that I was loving the small-speaker voyage, and perhaps in part to preserve his own sanity, Gareth rocked up with a box containing his very own Harbeth P3ESR XD loudspeakers and kindly offered that I could try them at home. At this time of writing, I still have them and can’t stop listening to them! These are one of the most complete sounding speakers I’ve ever heard. There isn’t a hint of harshness to them, even in my bright and lively living room. And with everything I play they just don’t seem to put a foot wrong. The P3ESR XD convey detail effortlessly, and with a slightly softer outline which brings a sense of organic-ness to their sound. Much like the Audio Note AX One, they image with astonishing aplomb. And with careful placement, they have a way of capturing the shape of instruments and sounds, giving a believable impression of three dimensionality. These little Harbeths have a fullness to their presentation that make them sound much bigger than they are. Compared to my bigger ATC SCM11, again outright scale is appreciably not as extended, but the P3ESR XD produce bass with definition and nuance, and in the lower midrange there’s a surprising amount of slam, ensuring kickdrums can be satisfyingly felt as well as heard.

Lasting impressions from the small speaker expedition…

It’s safe to say that I’m currently smitten with premium little loudspeakers. All three of the speakers featured are thoroughly entertaining in their own way and the key lesson learned here is that it’s possible to gain improvements in many areas of sound quality and overall enjoyment by going for a dinkier design. Perhaps the measurements, construction and acoustics of my living room dictate that a top-notch small speaker may yield better results than a bigger one? But on auditioning the Neat Petite Classic, Audio Note AX One and Harbeth P3ESR XD, it’s been encouraging to discover that all three sound way bigger than their physical dimensions suggest, and they don’t mind playing louder too. If I were blindfolded and asked to listen, I’m not confident I’d be able to correctly identify them as diminutive speakers. Which one of them is best? Well, it’s a matter of system matching, room integration and acoustics, and of course personal sonic and visual preference. All of these miniature marvels have their own unique musical boons. If like me you’re intrigued to discover more, my advice would be to get in touch with your nearest Audio T store. Our team can tell you more about these as well as other superb little offerings that we have. I’m now off to reluctantly pack up and return Gareth’s little Harbeths…

Thank you for reading. Rishi and Gareth – Audio T Reading

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