Neat Motive 2 SE - Not such a terrible error!

[Pedro2]

I read a post recently in which someone had bought a pair of Motive 2 SEs, only to bitterly regret the purchase as they sounded awful. It later turned out that the said speakers had blown tweeters.

I also bought a pair of 2 SE's in July when they were first released and have had an interesting 5 months with them.

After about a month of burning in, I also blew one tweeter through an accidental playing at full volume (powered by Roksan Kandy power amp) - my fault entirely. Contacted Castle Sound & Vision, Nottingham and they arranged for collection. As we live in the Peak District, a member of staff who was camping over the weekend called to pick them up on the way home - that's what I call customer service!

Castle contacted Neat who then promptly sent a brand new pair, no questions asked - again, brilliant service.

I have now been using the replacement pair for approx 3 months and can only report that I personally find them to be a great little floor stander. They have a smooth, natural sound which I can listen to for hours without tiring. However, when Neat advise a minimum of 200 hours for burning in, they are not joking. The sound changes slowly but steadily over this time and initial judgements straight out of the box would not always be so favourable!

Also, the tweeters do not appear to enjoy bursts of v loud noise so they may not be the first choice for any thrash metal lovers out there!

 

[aliEnRIK]

Sound a tad sensitive if the tweeters blow so easily. Ive had my system turned up VERY loud every now and then with no problems, and the speakers must be........ooooo...........8 years old at least

 

[cse]

Pedro - what amp are you using? I had the Motive 2SE's with said blown tweeters. Before the were replaced I did a final audition against the Petit SX. I prefered the Petit sound, although the Motives were nice and smooth sounding, but I found they lacked clarity and atmosphere as well as being more difficult to drive. Also, I was very disappointed to discover that the tweeters had blown as I do no play back at excessive volumes. Also, if you have to wait months before you actually really like the sound, it makes purchasing kit ridiculously expensive.

 

[Pedro2]

Hi CSE. I'm using a Roksan Kandy power amp (120 watts p.c I think) to drive the Neats.

They replaced a pair of AVI neutron iv standmounters which had a much more up front sound mix. They were brilliant but we needed to get small floorstanders because of our 9 month old toddler.

The Neat's have only just started to sound v good as I mentioned. It's taken ages. The sound is definitely not 'in your face' but that's not what I'm after. There's now lots of detail which was missing during burn in. On the whole, I'm really pleased with them and home auditioned a pair of Motive 2s owned by a friend before buying the SEs.

What did you end up with?

 

[cse]

Glad that you are happy with your Motive's. I ended up with the Petit's, which suit my small listening room better, although I prefer the Motive's asthetically. I use a Caspian MK1 integrated to supply them, but have been thinking of a possible change to a Naim Nait XS, as Roksan quoted £750 for an upgrade on the Caspian. What source do you use? I'm using a Densen CD420.

 

[Anonymous]

I've not heard the 2se's but I love my standard motive 2's. I got a second hand pair off the 'bay for 500 quid and they sound awesome! Much better than my previous Monitor Audio Radius 270s. My Naim 112x/150x combo seems to drive them very well! they are really easy to live with and don't give you a sense of fatigue when listening for long periods. Also they don't seem to mind playing my Dillinger Escape Plan lps! Plenty of blasts of noise/music there!