Are the KEF Blade/Blade 2 Metas a Significant Upgrade from Blade?

Well, that Rotel Michi mono amp must be quite an impressive design and engineering effort. While its power consumption is rated at 1,200 watts it somehow manages to output 1,800 watts into 4 ohms. A Class A/B amp cannot output more power than it consumes so I suspect its ratings are somewhat "optimistic".

I’m afraid I haven’t heard the Michi amplifiers live but I’ve heard and read many accolades. I will say that I’ve found the Coda 16 to be a very special match for my Blade 2s, refined, musical, authoritative, with as much power as my Blades will ever desire in my room. All the best!

The following mono amp was one that I wanted to demo last week.

Michi M8 Monoblock Power Amplifier - The Music Room (tmraudio.com)

The Los Angeles dealer I was close by to only had the integrated amp and not the monos. The integrated amp had a Class AB sound to it and was very good. The CODA #16 and KRELL 175XD are (mostly) Class A and sound smoother. However, I am intrigued by the idea of using really massive power on the Blades.

The Mitchi monos are likely similar sounding to the Hegel H30 mono with the Mitchi 1/2 the price. I have heard the H30 with Blade 1 in an excellent room. It was rather exciting though not the most refined sound, which sometimes is not a bad thing.

Hi yyzsantabarbara:

I have been using VAC preamplifiers for 20 years and my Signature IIa mates  beautifully with the Coda 16.0, making a great amplifier even better! I truly have no interest in trying other preamplifiers as all my VACs have mated great with SS and tube amplifiers. Highly recommend any and all models from the Renaissance V on up. All the best!

@audiobrian What are you using along with the CODA#16? That is really a great amp. I have the CODA 07x preamp too, but I would use my Benchmark LA4 preamp with any future CODA #16. I loved the LA4 preamp + CODA #8 (now sold).

Thank you all for your most helpful comments! 
I am thoroughly enjoying my original KEF Blade 2s driven by my Coda 16.0. Can’t really justify spending the additional funds on the new Metas or the time in selling my like new originals. My 66 yo hearing, which has seen/heard better days, may or may not fully appreciate the upgrade. Still interested though!

Send me an invite to come listen. ill buy the pizza.

@steve59 I can save up for that crazy KRELL since I have a KRELL Duo 175XD available for the short term for the Blade 2. I tested this amp with my prior harder to drive Thiel CS3.7 and it was excellent. 

I would normally never consider such an amp expenditure since there are many other great choices at much lower cost. However, the KRELL 175XD is pretty fantastic and so I will be giving the KSA 400i a good look. The biggest drawback for me is the 25-iinch depth of the casework. I think that is a deal breaker with the wife.

I do think sanity will prevail and I will most likely buy the CODA #16 for the Blades and return the KRELL 175XD to my office system.

@jn Thanks.I heard those amps with maybe Wilson. It was a dealer system that had 4 subs stacked on top of each other. Rather nuts.

yyzsantabarbara  Stereo dealer was using Naim 500 series amp and preamp and a Naim streamer to play Kef Blade twos metas ! 

that amp is listing around $35,000! 

@jrn Thanks to you and your wife. Very useful info for me.

Can you tell me what amps the dealer was using? I think I am going to go with the CODA #16 amp for the Blade 2 Meta. I am also very intrigued by the upcoming KRELL KSA 400i amp, but that 25-inch depth of that amp may make it incompatible with the wife.

I have the KRELL 175XD upon which the upcoming KSA 400i is derived from.

I own the older version of Kef Blade twos . The dealer I bought them from has a pair of new Kef Blade twos metas . My wife and I heard them after he had them for about 9 days or so .  He had a little over 200 hours on them .  They sounded good but not as good as I thought they would . We went back about 2 1/2 weeks later . He had played music on them non-stop . They sounded so much better , it was such a startling difference.  The Blade two metas do need a lot of run in time to sound at their best .  They are overall better sounding , bigger soundstage , better depth, clarity or transparency is improved .  If you read up on them they changed the UniQ driver 12 different ways , they changed 9 parts in the crossover .  I do remember when I first got my Kef Blade twos it took about 400 hours for them to sound their best !  Looks like you need that much if not more time to get Metas to shine .  Not all speakers are like this obviously.  But to my wife and my ears the Blade two metas are noticeably better . This was our experience!

Here’s a comment from Hong Kong on the Blade One Meta, making some comparisons to the original Blade One: "What a surprise!!! KEF’s previous Blades are not my cup of tea. I personally think that they are a bit clinical and uninvolving. This pair of Blade One Meta is a totally diff story. They perform excellently on all hifi aspects : dynamics, freq extensions, density, soundstage ...etc, and most important of all, they are exceedingly musical!" https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/kef-blade-one-meta-a-surprise.35045/post-803870

Also here’s a very favorable new review of the Blade One Meta from Hi-Fi News which details many of the changes made from the previous version: https://www.hifinews.com/content/kef-blade-one-meta-loudspeaker

I was on the triumph rat forum and on a thread titled audiophiles ahoy a member posted being at a kef demo where they compared the blade to the blade  meta and he said the difference in sound didn’t live up to the hype. I think that could be said for most of the products we pine for. I often wonder if new is really better or just different? ‘Coarse I have a vested interest 

Thanks; you may be correct. I’ve been reading some owner reviews of Blade Meta on the KEF Owners Group on Facebook, but most are from Europe. I’ll try giving KEF USA a call. 

Have you even tried phoning KEF USA to see if any Dealers have even received a pair?  My understanding is that no-one has them right now.