AVI Neutron IV standmount loudspeakers

AVI's Neutron bookshelf speakers are of course not entirely new. AVI head honcho Martin Grindrod created the first pair of these 'little big speakers' pretty much for fun (the company at that time, as now, specialised in hi-fi amplifiers) back in 1996. They sold well. In fact, they sold very well, around a thousand pairs in all, with dealers allegedly buying them by the fistful.

Despite their popularity, AVI stopped making them shortly afterwards, having decided that they just weren't good enough to bear the AVI marque. Hi-fi dealers had other ideas apparently, and after some lobbying, AVI decided to relaunch the Neutron with a new, improved design, which has been happening at irregular intervals ever since.

This year's model, the IV, consists of a five-litre traditionally shaped rear-ported enclosure (the original was even smaller at four litres), with a 127mm bass/mid driver courtesy of Danish firm Vifa (a Neutron first). The cabinet is designed to appear narrow at the front with greater depth than usual for this size of speaker, so it appears to take up less space in the room - it's still bigger than the average satellite for example, but noticeably smaller than most hi-fi standmounts. The driver is a doped curvilinear paper cone with a modified foam surround - this replaces the rubber surround on previous models and is claimed to suppress resonances better than its predecessor.

One of the more expensive components is the 28mm doped fabric Scanspeak tweeter which sits above the bigger driver. AVI's own rather complex second-order Linkwitz Riley crossover, which now kicks in at 2.5kHz (the original, somewhat controversially, did the business at 10kHz). At 28mm diameter, the tweeter is larger than many, and extends quite far down too, providing most of the upper midrange.

You might expect small speakers such as these with their wide claimed bandwidth to be a fairly stiff drive for the average amp, but AVI disputes this, advising only that you avoid particularly bright or harsh-sounding amps, and claims that they are “an easy eight-ohm load”. If you are a previous Neutron owner by the way, with all but the original model, you can return it to AVI for upgrade to the latest spec.

Sound
One of the most impressive aspects of this relatively small speaker is its versatility. Its wide bandwidth means it's comfortable with more extreme music, certainly for such a little fellow.

Playing them through Audio Analogue's famously smooth Primo amp, the Neutron seemed particularly happy, welcoming the chance to show what it could do with the lower midrange, keeping things well under control through Basement Jaxx's Good Luck. For a small speaker it has a surprisingly full and agile bass - AVI claims bass extension to 60Hz (-6dB) which is pretty decent, and fully believable.

Treble came across well too, Gillian Welch's bare bones acoustic guitar and voice being well defined, with only a hint of compression, certainly not enough to worry about.

Midrange however is where the Neutron IV excels, as well it should, since that's where most of the music is. Searching for deficiencies in track after track proved fruitless, with superb resolution and fine detail throughout. Timing was noticeably emphatic too within a soundstage that was open and broad. Not as broad perhaps as some larger floorstanders, but certainly broader than most at this price.

While careful system matching isn't really required, the Neutrons may have a tendency to be slightly bright, as is hinted at in AVI's literature, and which seemed to be borne out by a brief stint playing it through a Cyrus A50iR - certainly not 'bright' in itself, but lacking some of the overall richness of the Primo. Here the Neutrons seemed a little more stark, particularly in the midrange - not enough to put anyone off, but probably less likely to encourage you to turn it up.

Experimenting with placement reaped a few rewards. Nudging them up against a wall certainly seemed to give a degree more bass extension, but the payoff seemed to be with definition which, while perfectly serviceable, was noticeably less than with the speakers pulled out. An effective compromise seemed to be to have them around 40cm from the wall, which provided the extension, while appearing to lose none of the openness.

Verdict:

This is a marvellously adaptable little speaker with more than enough grunt to avoid embarrassing itself with heavy electronic dance music or hard rock, and plenty of definition to be able to acquit itself well with complex symphonic passages. If it's intended to be a small, unobtrusive hi-fi speaker for people who don't really want (or aren't allowed) to have hi-fi speakers in their home, it succeeds easily - one of the best-sounding small speakers at the price. What do you think of the Neutron IV? What do you think about AVI products? Tell us about it in the discussion zone below.