We were really impressed with Neat Acoustics’ Iota Alpha speakers, which stem from the original Iotas, when we reviewed them last year.
For all their odd-angled, knee-high idiosyncrasy, they proved as expressive and rhythmically entertaining as any other class-leading pair of £1500-ish speakers.
The forthcoming Iota Xplorer speakers are essentially bigger versions. They're 30cm taller, so more or less waist-height, and wider, too.
As with the Iota Alphas, the Iota Xplorer’s top section is sealed off from the lower section. A 17cm P1-R3 mid/bass driver and Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter occupy the top section, as per its counterparts in the Iota range.
The lower, ported section, houses two Neat Acoustic P1-R2 bass drive units, similar to the P1-R3 units. One is down-firing on the bottom panel, and the other is directly above it inside the cabinet, handling only the lower frequencies and acting as an integral subwoofer system.
The price of the Iota Xplorer speakers is yet to be confirmed, but naturally we’d expect them to be a fair few pounds more than the £1385 Iota Alphas. We hope to find out more when they make their UK debut at the Bristol Sound & Vision Show next week.
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