The Neat Motive range really has stood the test of time.

 

All share the same 5.5" doped paper bass / mid driver and Neats own titanium inverted dome tweeter. There has been significant development work over the past few months and Neat are confident that these are more accomplished products than the pre production Motive 1's that won a best-at-show award in Bristol last February. Their (relative) lack of placement sensitivity is very un-Neat, not to say, most welcome.

 

All are clean, transparent, dynamic and musical with the sort of mid range resolution that affordable loudspeakers rarely manage to achieve. The treble quality is absolutely top of the tree. Once run in, the mid to top transparency and smoothness is a genuine revelation. They all sound impressively similar to one another and work amazingly well with the Naim electronics of all levels. There is a matching centre speaker, so a musically compelling A/V package is a very real possibility.

 

The Motive 3 stand - mount is the baby of the range and it provides a large musical picture that belies its size.. For the money,it's downright amazing, producing dynamics, scale and colour. Even the bass carries more authority than you would imagine possible.

The Motive 2 is probably the most appealing package. It goes surprisingly low and images well. The irony is that the greater bass extension means that it goes slightly less loud than the smaller 3. Providing this relative lack of loudness is not an issue, and there have been significant improvements over the last couple of years, the Motive 2 can fill large spaces and physically disappear from the proceedings. Magical stuff.

 

The Motive 1 offers two-and-a-half-way bass arrangement and trades bass clarity for greater headroom. And still this speaker looks too small to make the sound it does! Against more mainstream rivals even this, the most compromised of the trio, unususlly open and involving. We would happily pit it against more expensive rivals.

 

 

 

Prices in downloads

 

 

Finishes :

 

 

cherry, natural oak, maple

 

All pictured are in natural oak.

The enhanced, upgraded 'SE' version of the immensely popular Neat Motive 2 is now here. Updates are not always improvements, so it is a relief to report that the Motive SE 2 really does represent a proper step forward in all respects. Interesting to see, too, that single wire is standard. It seems to have become de rigueur for any quality speaker these days. Just not quite sure I understand why the 'SE' comes before the '2' in the name. Rather implies a mk II SE.

 

Our first demo pair left the premises on a one-way trip as soon as they were demonstrated. Their replacements have settled in nicely and we really are getting quite warm and fuzzy about these little gems which are priced at £1325.

 

Smoother, more organised and refined that the standard Motive 2 (which remains in production), the SE2 works well with the new Naim Uniti Qute, although it is more than happy to be given a little more of a work-out from some of the larger amplifiers. It surely has to be on the shortlist for anyone looking for a diminutive room-filling speaker.

 

Now, please form an orderly queue . . .

The general consensus is that people only really want compact floor-standing loudspeakers these days. Surprising, therefore, to report that the resolutely un-hip, off-message Neat Petite SX keeps hitting the spot with listeners.

The SX is the latest incarnation of a long line of Petites and its wider-than-deep box proportions are now so unusual as to look cool and novel. It works for Leica and Porsche!

Sonically, they are lively, open, engaging and surprisingly muscular. Musically involving too and as valid with a Naim Uniti as with more exalted electronics.

One the fine range of Neat (and other) loudspeakers that we have on demonstration.