These rival floorstanders have impressed us in our test rooms – but for entirely different reasons

Things that cost the same generally are the same, right? Buy a £5 coffee from Starbucks and it’ll probably be pretty similar to the same-price alternative you’ll find at Costa or Café Nero.

A meal deal sandwich is broadly similar no matter which supermarket you patronise (M&S’s weird birthday cake monstrosities notwithstanding), while a £50 electric razor is probably going to do a similar job in a similar way, no matter the manufacturer.

Speakers, however, can be rather different in this regard. Size and shape, let alone performance, don’t always perfectly correspond to price, meaning you’ll often find rivals competing in the same price tranche despite looking and sounding entirely different.

Just take the Fyne Audio F502S (£2300 / $2800 / AU$3000) and Neat Mystique Classic (£2475 / $3699 / AU$5400) floorstanders, both pairs of which have been gracing our test rooms of late. Reviews, of course, will follow in the coming weeks.

Both will set you back a similar price, especially in the UK, yet place them side by side and you might as well be comparing Peter Crouch with Miriam Margolyes. Okay, for our non-UK-based readers, LeBron James and Danny DeVito.

The size difference is naturally what hits you first. It’s such a disparity that it raises a genuine chuckle every time we see the towers placed side by side, as though the Fyne Towers are the responsible parents ushering their Neat offspring off to school. It’s adorable!

The F502S are over 111.2cm tall. The Mystique Classic, by contrast, clock in at just 78cm. Making comparisons between this striking height disparity and any such disparities noticeable within our own What Hi-Fi? team, incidentally, has become a sackable offence.

That makes, naturally, these apparent rivals into very different propositions. For a start, their respective use-cases are hugely dictated by their differing sizes – you can pick up and carry a Neat tower almost in one hand, while the F502S are, unless you’re a seasoned strongman, a two-person job.

If you live in a top-floor flat, then, the F502S might simply be off the table, as pure logistics may make it troublesome to get them to where you want in the first place (although elevators are usually an option). Even if you can get them to where you want them to be, you’ve then got to consider whether the F502S are suitable for your space.

A massive set of floorstanders isn’t really viable for most customers in communal buildings or compact living spaces, as you’re in danger either of ticking off the neighbours or not giving your precious towers sufficient room to breathe and excel.

The Mystique, meanwhile, are small, light and easy to position, and while they’re not too fussy about back-wall placement, you do need to take care with the distance between the speakers to ensure you get a good central stereo image.

This said, part of the benefit to the Fyne’s design – in particular, their use of the IsoFlare driver array which aims to have all the speakers’ sonic frequencies sounding like they're coming from the same place – is that they aren’t too fussy about your given listening spot if your room happens to be large enough.

Stand anywhere in relation to the speakers and you’ll receive a remarkably stable reproduction – that IsoFlare tech really does work wonders in this regard.

Aesthetics play a part, too. Size aside, the Fyne towers do look like the more luxurious choice. The shiny veneered finish of our piano black test samples is an enchanting addition, contrasting with the rather basic, almost matte veneer of the Fyne towers.

For shunting unobtrusively to the back of a room, the Mystique are perfect, but as a showpiece, they’re not exactly eye-catching.

Then, as is always the case with hi-fi speakers, comes the matter of compatibility. We’re not dealing with two super-fussy rivals, but it’s worth noting that the Mystique sounded far more comfortable when paired with a Naim amp (the Nait XS 3) and Naim cables.

The F502S, on the other hand, seem comfortable with anything from an Arcam A15 (£1099 / $999) up to our high-end Burmester 088/911 MKIII reference system.

The key factor, of course, is the sound of our head-to-head contenders, and it won’t surprise you to know that, without giving the game away, they do things very differently. These are both excellent examples of what a floorstander at this price can be, albeit for rather pleasingly different reasons.

The Fyne, for example, are built to deliver a satisfying blend of authority, scale and musicality, and while you’ll have to wait for our forthcoming review to get the full lowdown, they’re impressive all-rounders. Good at low and high volumes and hugely capable no matter the genre you feed them, they’re true crowd-pleasers.

The Mystique, on the other hand, broadly emulate the characteristics of their Neat Petite Classic standmount siblings.

They’re fun and nimble, with a sweet midrange reproduction and a bass signature that, while less authoritative than the F502S, is remarkably taut and controlled. They’re niche, yes, but for pep and pizzazz, they’re immensely hard to look past.

The lesson here, of course, is simple: be sure to look beyond pure price. Speakers are less akin to supermarket sandwiches or overpriced coffee; instead, they’re like dog breeds, running shoes or even different types of cars.

In the same way you can buy a Labrador or a Rottweiler for £2000, you’re not getting the same thing. Or, let’s say you do get the same breed, one Labrador can be entirely distinct from the other, even for the same money.

This is the real pleasure, and indeed the danger, of hi-fi, and a warning to do proper research before leaping in and simply buying something because it’s the ‘right’ sort of price.

Price is merely the first hurdle. You then need to make those key considerations – compatibility, sound, styling – as well as more basic but oft-overlooked criteria such as space, logistics, how and where you'll listen and even your ownership timeframe.

The Mystique Classic, for example, may thrill you in the short term, but with a longer term view, would you be happier with the more rounded, accessible approach of the F502S? Don't get us wrong, we're keen on the Neat towers, but these are simply the questions you should be asking when investing in hi-fi.

If nothing else, these excellent contenders teach us a valuable lesson: the Fyne Audio F502S and Neat Mystique Classic may swim in the same price circles, but the way they actually look, sound and perform are utterly distinct.

Roughly £2500 is a lot of money: make sure you’re spending it on something you actually want.

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