KEF Blade or Blade 2

I initially heard the blade 2 at a local dealer. He had a nice room set up for me. Even though I loved the sound characteristics I wasnt engaged with the music

I think the problem with most blade demos is that they are shown off with inferior components. This particular dealer used the h590

There certainly isnt anything wrong with the 590, but I mean your showing off what is (at the time before meta) $25k speakers with an all in one that was $11k. The hegal being an amp, and pre amp, and dac, a transport/source, everything.

if you build a system and 70% of the cost of the system is solely for the speakers then you will not being bringing out the potential of the system. This isnt the issue with only this dealer, this was seemingly everywhere. Sometimes even Kef was demoing blades with Hegal. Maybe to show you can build a full system with blades and all cables and taxes for under 45k? Heck with dealer discounts and the fact that you dont need interconnects and only 1 power cord, your now talking under $40k brand new all in. Yes its a cheap price to get into the "high end" of sound. Except ppl hear this and feel underwhelmed

I now own the big blades (since i have a large room) and it sounds absolutely glorious. In fact, sometimes i listen and wonder how it could possibly sound better, thats how good it is

But I invested in a full fleshed out system.

My power, and outlet is in check. My room is ideal. The first thing I grabbed was isolation podiums (big improvement). High end (non current limiting) synergistic power conditioner with with upgraded Galileo PC. The most dynamic speaker cables I have heard to date. Fantastic transport, amazing dac, Class A big boy amp. Upgraded cabling, footers, isolation and other tweaks ext.

This is a full fleshed out system and all the components are set to enhance my speakers. If i dared to change these speakers I would also need to change some components as the balance would be totally thrown off. This is a proper system built around the speakers

I heard the new metas. Do they sound as good as my blades? not even close. I’m sure they are better though, but the system i heard it on not only cut corners but also wasnt built to bring out their potential. The others who heard his system were head of heels, but i was utterly disappointed.. even though I KNOW the metas should be better than the non metas 

Your asking to demo the blades.... be careful what you wish for. Yes you will be able to recognize some of the characteristics, you will get the sound stage, the famous imaging that matches speakers costing 3x as much. However, your not really asking to hear the blades your asking to hear someone’s "system" and that may easily leave you underwhelmed

@yyzsantabarbara 

sure of course. It starts with my synergistic purple outlet. The first item plugged in outlet is puron ac line conditioner. Next to that is the Galileo SX Power Cable that powers my powercell 12 uef se. I use the gold tuning bullet. Since everything is plugged into the powercell all my components pick up tonal characteristics of the Galileo. The power cell is key because the kefs are power hungry and unlike almost every other power conditioner, this one has been shown to actually increase powerdraw (by an average of 5%) so it adds to power reserves for when I play some bass heavy tracks at high volumes

My transport of choice is the lumin u2. Im using the ether-regen for my network switch, and I'm also using a linear power supply and external clock for the switch

The lumin gets a triode obsession PC. As with testing I found it perfect there. I'm using 3x IsoAcoustics Orea under the lumin

The lumin connects to my mola mola tambaqui dac via nordost interconnects. I'm currently auditioning new pre-amps atm so nothing I want to share there. Looking for the right fight. I use the krell duo 300 xd power amp. Would I love to try the i400? absolutely

But at $36.5k there is a lot of competition.. particularly the gryphon antileon evo. Plus I'm very happy with my current krell so no plans to change just yet

I'm using stealth audio cloude 99 speaker cables. Talk about speed, clarity, and air. Usually you need to pay BIG money to get such imaging and air, but the kef uni-q with these cables makes you think your listening to speakers that cost over $100k. They might actually be the fastest speaker cables period, not just from stealth but from any cable manufacturer. and they DONT SOUND BRIGHT. but I think these in other systems could easily be bright, its just that the blades arnt as "lively" as most others in the price range. looking squarely at vivid, B&W, and focal. The kefs are very flat and some dont like this but I LOVE that about the kefs because it's what gives them a blank slate and allows for leeway upstream to add the tonal characteristics that you want

Finally, my kefs sit on Townshend Audio Seismic Isolation Podiums. This was a very big upgrade, and not to be underestimated. They brought my blades to new heights

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of other little things/ tweaks here and there but thats the gist of my system

I think you do need to listen to the blade meta though regardless of the components as there seems to be a slight dips and peaks in an otherwise relatively flat frequency response. Some people actually like their original blades better for this reason.. because certain male vocals can sound "nasilly".

Here is what one reviewer said about the metas "

"Steve Winwood has a more nasal vocal than many other singers. It’s more evident on the Blade Meta than on most other speakers. It’s clear that the speakers don’t dress up sharp recordings at all, when much of the energy is in the 2-3 kHz range.

This wasn’t something I’d noticed before, because while the speakers aren’t silky smooth by any means, they usually just come across as linear and packing a lot of punch. They don’t usually have any gain in the 3 kHz range.

But when that particular frequency range sticks out negatively on a recording, playing loud isn’t quite as cool. Even at moderate sound pressure levels, it can be just over the top, and I think it’s fair to say that we’ve found an example of music that the Blade One Meta isn’t particularly keen on. Which is why I think I’ll skip Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Fogerty this time around"

The majority still like the metas better because they feel more engaged, although as I was trying to say earlier I think thats not the role of the speaker.

Some people are drawn to speakers like B & W because they are drawn in during demos, and then complain later on that their system sounds way too bright.

These tonal characteristics can be resolved upstream, with source, dac, preamp, cables, and amp. You build upstream to get the type of sound you want. The speaker should be flat imho. Thats why I prefer the original blades

They do sound different though. It seems this meta’s were aimed at people who didnt find the originals "lively". Thats exactly how I felt listening to the non metas paired with hegal

After pairing with a sweeter class A amp and some silver speaker cables I’m in heaven with the originals

If your not willing to spend a lot of money upstream you will probably prefer the metas

The blades need surprisingly a lot of power to really sing, Meaning to pair the blades with a class A amp, and truely power them correctly will cost some real money in amp pairing

The metas do have cleaner treble and a better crossover as well