NeoFone Project - Thoughts on the sound

[Brian]

Folks

I've never claimed to be good at describing very well how things sound, I tend to like something or I don't, so I'm not
sure I'm going to make a lot of sense describing how I find the Neofone, but I'll give it a go.

My wife and I listened to music pretty much all day yesterday.

It's pretty much jaw dropping stuff and not at all what I was expecting from such an inexpensive project. Maybe this is the coherence of
the single driver thing, it just sounds so 'right'. I bought the Neofone as an experiment because I need something for a second system
while working away from home. Having heard what it can do I feel slightly uneasy now accommodating such a large loudspeaker as the
KLS3's in the main system.

In many ways the Neofone is outperforming the KLS3's, particularly in the resolution of each instrument, it's eerie how much space
there is around each and every instrument, which of course means I can roll out the cliché of hearing music I've never heard before.
In this case it's very true though and is pretty scary when I'm listening to a CD I've heard at least 100 times.

The tonal balance is very good. You don't expect it by the diminutive size of the Neofone, but the system does bass and it's not one-note
either, this is bass of the well-defined and tuneful variety and it goes low.

Everything I listened to yesterday was pretty much a revelation, it's a very fast, open and dynamic sound with a very clear midrange
and with some sense of emotion in the vocals. This effect was described to me by a dealer one time when they were doing a demo' of
a hicap. I couldn't hear it then and didn't buy the hicap, I think I'm hearing now.

What the Neofone doesn't do is real thunderous volume levels but it easily goes loud enough for my listening habits and with some headroom to
spare. My room is roughly 22' x 12' and these speakers work no problem at all. The valve amp' is a PP in triode without NFB, knocking
out about 10 watts and it's easily sufficient. The Neofone will easily work in a small room too, so I think they're versatile.

I experimented a bit with placement, trying them a foot or so away from the wall and finally settling on them placed a couple of inches away
from the rear wall. They seem very suited to that position. I'll be moving the Neofones to the flat on Sunday and this will be interesting
because I'll be running them in the second system from a SS amp' and a Squeezebox rather than the Ella PP and Meridian 206B in the main system here.

Right now I see no reason at all for me to add a large bass unit to fill in the low stuff, although this was the original plan. I think
it's all pretty much there and well balanced, the system does what I want. For those who listen at huge volumes it would make sense to
add this bigger bass unit working below 100Hz, the Neofone on it's own does break up in the bass if pushed too hard. I tried this last night
and it wasn't nice, but this was at a volume level well above normal levels for me, so I'm not bothered by it. However, I am thinking I'm
on the verge of something really special. There is the possibility that by adding the large bass unit the system will take that step
into the only thing I can identify that is lacking and that is effortlessness. The Neofone doesn't have this on it's own. Adding a large bass
unit in it's own sealed box brings the advantage of allowing the Neofone to be moved into a smaller sealed box of it's own, so this gets rid
of the ports and removes the task of low bass from the Neofone.
I have no doubt that if implemented properly this could be a real killer loudspeaker system.

Does it end there? Maybe, maybe not. Right now I don't see any value in adding the Fountek Neo CD3.0's, I've already bought these to work above
12Khz, but there is sparkle to the sound, I don't feel anything is lacking in the high stuff for my 49 year old ears so I don't see (or hear) the need
to be in any hurry to open these up.

Music was by:

Alice Cooper
CCR
Phil Collins
Crash Test Dummies
Neil Diamond
Dire Straits
Eagles
Fleetwood Mac
Free
Greenday
Barclay James Harvest
Elton John
Maria McKee
Eddi Reader
Cyndi Lauper
Amy MacDonald
Madonna
Mike Oldfield
REM
Sade
Sky
Stereophonics
James Taylor
Van Morrison
Suzanne Vega
Also listened to Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker Suite for something different.

Cost:
Neofone $134 pr inc postage from Hong Kong (~£70)
VAT on import of 17.5% = £11.90
Tax at 4% = £3.20
Parcel Force "handling charge" = £8.00
Wood £29
Damping material £4.47
Cable £3.90
Terminal blocks £7.19

I already had a couple of ports, glue and black paint gathering dust in the shed. It's true I spent nearly £30 on four clamps but they will come in handy for future projects, so I'm not counting them here.

Total cost £137.66.

Brian