Todays demo..

Tempted by a hifi chain speaker upgrade offer and my experience of neat speakers at the Bristol show I took a demo this morning of Neat Momentum Sx3i against my Dynaudio Contour 1.3mk2's which I brought in. Kit was Rega Saturn CD, with 202 /200DR + HiCapDr & napsc.

First up were the Dynaudios for half an hour with a few CDs - well they sounded stunning, detailed and with real slam and drive particularly with heavier stuff like Primus and Isis. A couple of other tracks sounded a bit harsh with vocals (first aid kit) but overall excellent and better than I get from them at home.

The Neats up next - similar size to the dynaudios and first impressions great, they were detailed engaging and accurate but with a slightly darker presentation than I'm used to. The more I listened though I realised I was missing something from the Dynaudios and I wouldn't be able to let them go - to be honest there wasn't much I didn't like about them in the first place. The Neats were 'better' overall but certainly not worth the £2k to upgrade to my ears.

The question then is where next - the Dynaudios gave so much more at the demo than I'm currently getting that I may be looking at amplification. I'd previously heard the (bare) 202/200 against my supernait and not liked it but the dr version with hicapdr / napsc sounded great. As a possible next step I'm going to get a home dem of the 202/200DR - anything else I should be looking at?