Neat IOTA Alpha

Posted by: Ardbeg10y on 23 December 2016

Guys,

Some advice / reflections appreciated from you.

For next year I have a budget of about Euro 2000 to invest in hifi. This is not carved in stone, but not too much more please. I had some plans to get a pair of Ovators for the living, but this is budgetwise and wifewise not feasible unfortunately.

When I'm at home, I mostly watch the Berliner Philharmoniker late night so I prefer to dump the money in the TV / kids room. Very cosy place.

I have a Loewe 40 inch TV there and now and then I drag my Supernait + CM1's to there and I have a good evening.

Since this is quite an hassle and not too well for my gear, I'm going to setup a 'final' hifi-solution with this TV.

So, I'm going to audition some speakersets and the first set are the Neat Iota Alphas. They get good reviews and I need a set which is pretty discrete and small.

Neat and Naim seem to glue together well so no worries there.

As far as I see now - audition to confirm this - they can get pretty low so no subwoofer is needed.

My first question:
Can I connect the Analogue Audio Out from the TV to a Naim Power Amp directly, or would it be better to connect the TV digitally to my Naim AV2, and add a Power Amp to it? Or should I better get a s/h Nait 5 / Nap 150 / Nap 100 or so to pair it with to drive the Loudspeakers?

Second question:
I need some flexible Speakercable. I have currently 20m spare Linn K20, and I consider this already as 'quite stiff'. How about Chord Clearway? Looks to me as good value for money.

Third question:
Since I don't know yet if home audioning is a possibility (need to ask that), but regarding my TV room the following: it is about 4x2 meters and having - in the evening when I listen to the Berliner Philharmoniker - at least half of the surfaces covered by curtains or carpet. Since the tweaters of the Neat Iota Alpha's fire significantly upwards and therefore I assume reflections are important. I my case, they would fire straight into the heavy curtains behind me. My current CM1's feel very well there however positioning is very important. Moving 10 cm either to the left or the right changes the sound immediately.

Well thats it for now.

Anything I should not forget?

Posted on: 23 December 2016 by Simon-in-Suffolk

The Iota Alphas sound rather good in the mids and highes... although not really what I would call revealing, they sound attractive and quite forgiving. The bass is a hard one though, to me they have sounded when I heard them a little soft and boomy... so I suspect position and room dynamics are key to getting a tighter bass.

Posted on: 23 December 2016 by Dr_J

The Neat Iota's and Alpha's definitely solve the space problem.

Haven't heard the latter, but tried the former for my study UQ2 system. Initially really impressed with the performance of such tiny speaker, but after a while came to the conclusion that if I put that to one side, I was missing the bass from somewhat larger alternatives - obvious really and definitely not the fault of the Iota's. Just a reflection of the 'quart from a pint pot' rule. 

The Alpha's appear to be much better in that respect, SiS post above, but appear to be more position sensitive.

So, as ever, a home demo in your own listening room with your own system is the only way to discover what's right for you .

KR, J


 

Posted on: 25 December 2016 by Richard Dane

The Av2 is just right here.  Don't try connecting straight from your TV to a power amp - at least not a Naim amp.  AV2 + the Naim amp of our choice is very nice...

Posted on: 25 December 2016 by Ardbeg10y

Richard, thanks. The plan now is to pair the AV2 with an older Nait 5 and first give the Nait 5 a service. I like both the AV2 + Nait 5 for their versatility. Also, I slightly prefer the dac of the AV2 to the dac which is in the Supernait 1. Just a bit more air / detail.

If I can't get the Nait 5, I'll try to get a Nap 150x.

Posted on: 28 December 2016 by Ardbeg10y

Hi Guys, a follow up.

I've auditoned the Neat Iota Alphas today.

The good things: they are absolutely no less speaker than many much larger alternatives, they do proper bass, have a great all-round mid / high. They would fit perfect in my interiour especially with my TV. If you have no speakers yet and have a small place: recommended.

However the speakers were good, and I was very much willing to buy them, they did not convince me as a significant step upwards. Sometimes, when you see / hear / use something you are immediately convinced that it is the good thing to do - this did not happen now.

The main lesson was that my Supernait 1 without a hicap driving two B&W CM1s using K20 cable (2x 10 meters) is already very good. Very good indeed.

The dealer offered me to home audition the speakers. I'll do that second half of Januari. Maybe magic happens ...

Lets see, I keep an open mind and am not in a hurry.