I have the kef blades and the dealer I bought the h590 from also had some hi end Ayre components on the floor. The ayre had a more open soundstage and nice top end. The H590 in comparison was tight. On its own I find the presentation from the h590 to be all I could ask for, but compared to the $40k ayre separates the ayre just sounded a touch more relaxed. I bought the hegel because the price was about a third of the Ayre and the control the 590 has is impressive. The H590 does a great job with Kef ref and the dac in the 590 is much more capable than the h360 which I also have,
Ayre v Hegel sound
My setup is comprised of a Roon-ready Ayre QX-5 Twenty DAC, Ayre DX-5 DSD disc player, Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp and VX-5 Twenty amp driving a pair of KEF Reference 1s augmented below 80 Hz with s pair of acoustic room corrected Velodyne HGS-15s. The speakers are high-passed at 80 Hz by a Marchand filter. I've been mulling over the idea of replacing the DAC, preamp, and amp with a Hegel H390 integrated for simplicity and downsizing , but I have no idea what effect that might have on the sound. Anyone out there know or have an opinion?