Neumi Silk 4 - Review & Measurements by Erin

[VintageFlanker]

Text data to be updated.

Doesn't seem to be available for EU market...

 

[HighFutility]

Good value for the money.

 

[DearSX]

Nice, I wonder if this would be a good system to place on top of a large TV cabinet a few feet from the ceiling and a few feet from a corner? Its for a friend that wants it out of the way.

 

[HighFutility]

Nice, I wonder if this would be a good system to place on top of a large TV cabinet a few feet from the ceiling and a few feet from a corner? Its for a friend that wants it out of the way.

At the price, they are good enough for any setup. Could find something better on the used market, but that would take time and a lot of luck.

As far as preference score goes, these are on par with the KEF 150. I would still go with the Kef, but this does give some insight into how good of a value these speakers are. The finish looks cheap, but that is to be expected.

 

[DearSX]

At the price, they are good enough for any setup. Could find something better on the used market, but that would take time and a lot of luck.

As far as preference score goes, these are on par with the KEF 150. I would still go with the Kef, but this does give some insight into how good of a value these speakers are. The finish looks cheap, but that is to be expected.

Thanks, I'm going to look into the KEF also.

 

[radix]

At the price, they are good enough for any setup. Could find something better on the used market, but that would take time and a lot of luck.

As far as preference score goes, these are on par with the KEF 150. I would still go with the Kef, but this does give some insight into how good of a value these speakers are. The finish looks cheap, but that is to be expected.

I use the Q150 on top of a TV cabinet in a bedroom, maybe 1' from the ceiling and 3' apart. It's a long narrow room, so I toe out maybe 15*-30* (that's an eyeball estimate) so they there's a strong bounce to the MLP at the head of the bed, and added a SVS micro 3000. Works pretty well. Definitely gives the illusion of a larger room. I think the coaxial KEF do a good job bouncing like this. It's for TV and some lite streaming, not hifi.

 

[Jeromeof]

Good value in America - but sadly in Europe it's a disaster. Just checking Amazon prices in Europe and it's double the price of the Amazon.com - I could get a Dali Spector 1 or 2 or a Q Acoustics 3020i cheaper and a KEF Q150 for very slightly more.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Good value in America - but sadly in Europe it's a disaster. Just checking Amazon prices in Europe and it's double the price of the Amazon.com -

I just checked Amazon FR:

Ok.What the heck ?!

Better pay shipping + import taxes straight from Amazon.com

 

[uwotm8]

For $150 it just kills the whole cheap DIY idea from Part-sexpress to GRRe!search Little Garbage Kinda-speakers.
What I do really like is die-cast woofer chassis (I expect it to be PE's Dayton-grade).
And yes, combined with $160 Elac sub (which will never be as good as my ex Dynaudio Sub250 but it's $160) - Q150 have no chance, especially for casual listening.

But 678 Euro makes it all absolutely different for another part of the world. LOL

Meanwhile these killers of cheap DIY are not alone in the US:

Woofer in Micca RB42 seems to be (one of) a Chinese copy of PeerLess SDS and the ones I had deal with were VERY impressive... For what it is ofc
And also - did anyone measured Moukey vision of Yamaha 6490? My bet it's a mess but $20 is $20 but for such a little money, they could sell tons of it.

 

[uwotm8]

Better pay shipping + import taxes straight from Amazon.com

Still not exactly as good; Dali Spektor 2 and Q 3010 cost ~the same, Spektor 1 is 160 Euro

 

[VintageFlanker]

Dali Spektor 2 and Q 3010 cost ~the same, Spektor 1 is 160 Euro

Still. Seems better than all of them.

 

[uwotm8]

Seems better than all of them

Yes and no - depending on if you nave a sub. If no, these are just uneven and you'll get a knocking-to-the-cardboard-box sound instead of kick drum

PS found that offer while searching what's else do we have and some guy in comments says it's a PAIR (actually all ELACs are sold in pairs, right?):

 

[VintageFlanker]

PS found that offer while searching what's else do we have and some guy in comments says it's a PAIR (actually all ELACs are sold in pairs, right?):

I personally posted this deal several times, and yes, the price is indeed for the pair.

 

[Weeb Labs]

Here is a set of PEQs for the Silk 4. These correct the on-axis response to within ±1.5dB from 70Hz to 17KHz. Directivity is good but there is a slight mismatch around 2.5KHz and I don't have access to the complete spin data, so these should ideally be used for nearfield listening. Manufacturing tolerances are unknown and only one sample has been measured, so I would not expect ±1.5dB to hold for all units.

 

[Jprime84]

Amateur new owner here of these. Running through a new Schiit Magni Unity +DAC as the preamp, and the Schiit Gjallarhorn amp at my PC. I can drive these as hard as I would realistically listen without headphones and they sound great. For this application, I daresay you don't need the sub except for the deepest bass although like he says in the vid it might bring down what little distortion there is. Very happy for the money spent, and I intend to measure later but for now @Weeb Labs PEQ is running nicely at -3db preamp in Peace EQ. Very happy for the money and this application.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

I decided to try these for my office at work. I wanted some inexpensive speakers but I did NOT want anything with boosted bass, and a bit of mid elevation was fine with me. Many lower price speakers are v or u shaped in their response, but speakers that don't do that (much) are harder to find at this price point. And $150 was the high end for this choice, in terms of what I was willing to spend for my workspace.

I have a couple of days with these. They are in my small office, 8'x12', cinder block walls, 6-12" from the wall, so lots of room gain and reflections. I have crossed them over with a sub at 100hz (cheap 100 watt 6.5" sub, set at 35% volume, goes down into the high 30s iirc from years ago when I got it), and boosted the treble 2db as a starting point.

Thanks for the EQ, Weeb Labs!... that might come in handy later on for me and others.

I did think, based on Erin's measurements, they would react well to the room and placement. I have done no measurements yet, but will eventually when I have time.

First day, I made no judgements. Second day, things fell apart quickly even at moderate volume, super bloated and muddy. So I tightened the drivers, which were VERY loose. As in a full turn plus loose for many of the screws. I do this with all new speakers after a day or two, but have never found any drivers as loose as these. That cleaned things up a LOT, as you might imagine. I suggest you do that at the start with these, then retighten after a few days.

They sound pretty good in my office. I mean, they are $150 speakers. But good tone, nice imaging (for the room). They sound good at 3 feet, and at 6 feet, and they actually sound pretty good down the hall, for my "no one is here yet let's play loud" times. That's (guessing by ear) about 65-70db at 3 feet, btw. So not super loud.

Given my experience, and given how well they seem to take to EQ, these are definitely worth considering for a small space. But I do think they need a sub, and I generally can take pretty early roll off in the bass without it being a major problem. Without a sub, I would have gone a different route.

One note. The box said these were packaged in August of 2022, almost 2 years ago. There is old stock sitting around. So there is a chance these will go on some sort of sale in the relatively near term as they are closed out, but that's just a guess.