Neat lota II

Tiny speakers with niche appeal but a whole lot of gumption

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Neat Acoustics has always done things a little differently - a touch quirkily, but with heaps of fun. Just take a look at the odd-looking Iota Alpha floorstanders, and the original Neat Iota speakers, which are incredibly tiny but also, like many of the brand's various speakers, endlessly entertaining.

We have been fond of those tiny Iota speakers since we first reviewed them back in 2012. Now, more than a decade later, the brand has brought out a sequel.

The Neat Iota II speakers retain plenty of the originals' charm, intention and quirkiness, with a handful of updates and a rather tricky price rise.

Little boxes

These speakers stand just 13cm tall, 20cm wide and 17cm deep. A standard small bookshelf speaker (the blueprint laid down by the legendary BBC LS3/5A monitors) is roughly 30 x 20 x 18cm, give or take a few millimetres. Those are the dimensions of the current Award-winning B&W 607 S3 standmounts and Neat's own Petite Classic, among others.

The Iota II, then, are even smaller than that. They are designed to be placed 'sideways' with the tweeter on the side, meaning the height is less than half that of your standard speaker. Their footprint is barely bigger than that of a DVD case.

Neat has kept the dimensions and internal volume (2.6L) the same between the two generations. The ribbon tweeter has also remained the same, and is placed off-centre, as before, so you can swap the speakers around depending on where you position them.

We recommend keeping the tweeters on the outside when using them in larger spaces or on stands for a better spread of sound and scale. Keep the tweeters facing inside if they are placed closer to you when using them as desktop or computer speakers.