Neat Acoustics have been suppliers of funky stuff to needy audiophiles for a rather large number of years now, and have become rather good at it too! Here in the Cheltenham store we needed something fun to do while the Gold Cup horse racing shenanigans had scared away all but the bravest (or foolish) of our customers. So we asked Bob Surgeoner, (the boss man and resident design genius at Neat), if he could send us a pair of the new Classic Elite floorstanding loudspeakers to give us something to look forward too and like he always does… He said yes!

In 2022, Neat launched the first model in its new Classic range with a new version of the legendary Petite. This giant-killing little speaker became an immediate success with a succession of exceptional reviews and awards, leading to a demand for a floorstanding companion for the mighty stand-mounter. So, looking once again to the company’s legacy products, it was deemed appropriate to revive the Classic Elite, a model last in production in 2016.

Like the Petite Classic, the new version of the Elite retains the outer dimensions of the original model, but with updated drive units and a completely redesigned crossover. Designed to work well in smaller listening spaces, this latest design brings a full-range performance without dominating the living room.

The bass-mid driver is the latest version of Neat’s own R3 doped paper cone unit, the same as used in the flagship Ultimatum range, and the tweeter is the remarkable AMT (Air Motion Transformer) from the Petite.

These superb drive units are seamlessly blended by a minimalist crossover using carefully chosen components of the highest quality.

The staggered port tuning through the base and the rear of the cabinet contributes to the clean, defined and rhythmic bass response. Along with superlative treble performance from the Air Motion Transformer tweeter, the Classic Elite combines all the usual Neat trademarks of clarity, musical engagement and a convincing soundstage in a compact and elegant cabinet.

Available in a choice of oak and walnut real wood veneers (which look lovely) and satin black and satin white.

Tuned port venting downward at a precise space and spiked bases too

According to the blurb these speakers can reproduce bass right down to 25hz! so I chose to put that to the test with one of my favourite demo tracks, Hey Now by London Grammar from their first album, which is called If You Wait.

This album is beautifully recorded and is pressed up over four sides each playing at 45 rpm for extra dynamism and it works too! As part of a system with the Rega P8 turntable with the Ania Pro cartridge feeding the Rega Elicit amplifier it was obvious right from the start of the track that something really rather good was about to happen and when at the 1 minute and 20 seconds point the bass drops in it is astonishingly subterranean. But here’s a thing that took me totally by surprise, the whole sound was beautifully airy and open with the delicate shimmering guitar in the background coming over like I had never heard it before (and believe me I have heard it many many times…) Hannah’s vocal soars out of the boxes and floats in the space created between the loudspeakers, a goosebumps moment! This was levels of bottom end combined with detail retrieval not normally associated with speakers this small or at this price level. Very cleverly that deep deep bass never gets in the way of the rest of the performance. everything remains clean and open with that rare ability to let you follow every little nuance that is going on in the music all at the same time…which is just wonderful!

To sum up all I can say is that the Neat Classic Elites are shockingly good value for money. They are easy to drive and so sound good on more modest amplification, however, if they are properly driven with a top quality source and a good amp they really spring to life like no other speaker of this size that I know. They take a bit of running in (200 hours as recommended by Neat) but persevere with this and you will be rewarded with a truly sensational sound! The Neat Elites are definitely ones to put on your demo list.

Many thanks for reading