[ehider]

Late this year I "volunteered" to build a pair of NEO 2X for a buddy of mine. So, it's now been many months with hundreds of hours of break in and many review sessions and I am happy to say that I feel the NEO 2X are now my very first choice as the best "bang for the buck" speaker under the $800 price point. There are many areas where the NEOs exceed beyond belief but first and foremost I have to give serious kudos to the performance of tweeter. It's very, very smooth to the point that it puts most other alternative speakers at this price point to shame. "Not even close" would be how I'd label the plethora of dome tweeter two way speaker alternatives from other speaker competitors. The NEO tweeter is absolutely world class here. Sweet, airy highs and immersive harmonics all over the place without any sense of hardness whatsoever When it comes to the soundstaging abilities of the NEO 2X they throw a very wide soundstage that is also very special. I think one of the reasons they do so well here is that the NEO's do this their best when they are placed in a straight ahead position i.e. no toe in. I suspect the NEO's must have an incredible off axis frequency response as this is one of the very first speakers I've ever placed that sounds it's best firing straight ahead (perhaps Danny could chime in here regarding the off axis response?). As far as the bass capabilites, the NEO's seem to go very strong into the 50 hz area then they obviously need some sort of subwoofer support. Up until that point though, there seems to be little roll-off indeed. As a side note, my buddy's subwoofer was set at a very low 37 hz for a perfect transistion, so maybe they go even lower? Lastly, the most impressive aspect of the NEO's is how well they properly reproduce drums. Not only do the NEO's portray the attack and energy of drums, they faithfully capture the "essence" of a drum's freqency range so well that they exceeded my three personal reference speakers ($10K, $16K, $27K). All three of my own speakers are no slouch here by any means but Danny's latest creation managed to do something so special with the sound of drums that it took me completely by surprise   These are great times in audio. I cannot imagine anyone not seriously having a blast listening to their favorite tunes through a pair of NEO 2x's.

[poseidonsvoice]

Thanks for the review. Can you please name those three reference speakers?
Best,
Anand.

[trianglezerius]

Interesting assesment........ aa

[trianglezerius]

I am Mr. Hiders buddy he mentions and I agree 100% with his assessment on the NEO-2X, but would like to add the following:

My previous speakers were the award winning Triangle Cometes until I had received Danny's demo pair for audition. Shortly there after I sold my Triangles and bought the kit (NEO-2X). The Cometes were just out classed in every aspect. IMO the NEO-2X plays more like a speaker in the $3K plus range (the Cometes new were $1200). The difference's that I first noticed was how they, the NEO-2X, had more dynamics and less distortion. Plus the Cometes had a recessed midrange in comparison. The treble on the Cometes was hard, harsh, and one notey when compared to the NEO-2X's BG tweeter. The BG was just more organic in its presentation. The bass was loose and one notey in comparison to the NEO-2X.

That's all I have to add, I think Mr. Hider said it all.

[Rocket_Ronny]

I would agree with ehider's comments about the Neo tweeter being world class. It truly is wonderful. Fast, transparent, non fatiguing. They are electrostatic in sound, only better for me. When coupled with the amazing McAlister PP150, bells, chimes, percussion, ring to life in a manner not heard on most systems.

I listen to my Neo's in all sorts of situations, toed in directly to me, or shooting past my head by 15 degrees, or even crossing in front of me. All sounds great, just a different presentation. I do not point them just straight ahead as I listen to them in an equalateral triangle or greater, and that is too far off axis.

With the Neo 2x being a smaller box version of the OB 5s I have, I know the great sound you are hearing. I think that Neo is killer good even though I have not heard it.  Ha. 


Rocket_Ronny