@yyzsantabarbara Hi, sorry missed your reply, left speaker is 60 cm from side wall, right one 110, measured at the middle of the round base of the Blade |
Thx, for your replies guys! I heard both blades in closed rooms much wider then mine...
As stated my L shaped room is only 4.8 meters wide, would this pose a problem? I would like to put them in same position as my current speakers:
My bw 800 matrix are placed at 50cm from side walls, in the long part of the L, at about 5 m from me, with 4m of room behind them, and a sloped ceiling there till 5m high. The side of the room they are firing at has normal height 2.8m ceiling with wooden beams, I sit at the short part of the L, against the wall, with 3 m opening to kitchen to my left.
I suppose possible problems of reflection will be identical with both speakers, but the bigger blade will pressurize my room better? Audiotroy, is there any difference on vocals, instrumental timbre like piano between both blades? I noticed the woofers in the big blade sit a bit higher and cross over at 350Hz, while the blade two crosses over at 320Hz to smaller woofers... one review mentioned a bit over ripeness on male vocals like leonard cohen for exemple with the blade 2? |
I forgot to ask, which one is best suited for low level listening? |
Hello Audiotroy, rest of my system consists of Halcro DM10 preamp, and T+A MP3000 HV cdplayer, audioquest wild wood speaker cable.
With this system my BW800 matrixes sound more detailed and effortless louder then before, but much less warm as well (mcintosh mc1000s before with audio research ref40 pre or mcintosh c2300 pre).
I live in Belgium.
Apart from the cdplayer I heard the blade one with these exact Halcro dm10 and Rowland Model 9t at a dealer, where they sounded good apart from not much low bass... which is the reason I got doubting, since the blade 2s with full electrocompaniet system did produce good bass on the same song but other location; as said big blades in room with sloped side walls and on rollers, blade 2s in huge hotel conference room at high end show and demoed by Kef leading man. |
Audiotroy, Kef Blades and Vivid Giya indeed both use the side woofer vibration cancelling arangement. Hower the coaxial midrange tweeter horn loaded in the blade vs the multiple domes in the vivid giyas are very different. Also in crossover topology I think the blades use lower order crossovers then the vivids, which would make for less fase shift to compensate in the blades...
I like the giya 1 and 2, but I was never moved the same way the blades emotionally swept me... and the vivids cost more indeed.
Thank you for your suggestion mzkmxcv, but the vivid b1 would be lacking in bass for my room.
Audiotroy what do you think in terms of system matching of my set with the blades?
Do you think both blade models sound good on low level listening? I do love a speaker that puts out good bass at low volume levels.
Very few current speakers do that, they all want to win the megawatt race, but forget about low level late night listening, like many of us do, or even normal listening levels. The old matrixes are brilliant at filling a room at low levels as well, I ditched the newer BW 800N just for that reason, no bass at low levels... |
To be fair, I did not get to play my own music on the big giyas... so that could put them at a disadvantage to reach me emotionally... Price difference is there though... the smaller and less pricey giyas simply put the soundstage too low for me... |
Whitestix, the big blades or the two? 😎 |
Hegel with Blade was probably Blade 2...
To get back on topic...🙂 This post wasn’t really Kef Blade vs Vivid Giya but Kef Blade one vs two...😎 Anyone else had a chance to compare both? Thx |
Thx Jetter, but I am not in US, so importing them would cost me a fortune...
david_ten, I live alone 😎, my current speakers are bigger then the Blades 🤪 |
Interesting even experts seem to have different opinions...
Johan Coorg from Kef itself said in his home he preferred the Two, the big Blade overloaded his room he said, needing room treatment, the Two just fit right in...
No specs on his room however... |
i just found a Dutch review saying the same as Audiotroy, both Blades sound alike but the bigger sounds bigger, giving off more energy... which one is best depends on the room you use it in...
How much distance is recommended from the side and rear walls, I looked up their user manual, but text and picture on that seem to imply different things...
With my room being 4.8 by 9.3m would it be advised to completely change my setup for them and have them against the long wall, firing down the short end? This would be strange for me, as I like to sit like 4.5 to 5 m away from the speakers... With the depth of my sofa and the depth of the speakers, plus some rear distance from the wall that would be impossible... |
Thx for the detailed info Steve Z! Only thing you did not mention is where you positioned the Blade Two. Do you position them in the width of 3.70 m, firing down the lenght of the room (as I would prefer) or the other way round?
How much space so you have them from the side and rear walls?
thx |
Just remeasured my room, 4.65 m to be exact... leaving 65 for the width of the speakers I could put them 2 m apart and leave 1m each side... But still room treatment then would be needed seems...
No idea if the big blade would be at disavantage because of the limited width more then the Blade two? |
Thank you Ayrefan for the long and detailed info!
Seems there are a lot of happy Blade 2 campers out there 😎
I am wondering if any Blade one owners want to chip in and tell us their experiences? |
Strangest thing... I accompanied a friend to pick up his new Hegel 360 amp in a shop, and asked to,hear the blade 2s on it... I did not like at all... we changed for the Kef Reference 5 and all was well... better imaging, no midbass bloat...
In all fairness the setup could have been better suited, a cambridge audio sacd player was used to play cds, connected with optical cable to the Hegel. When the Blade2s where changed for the Kef REF5, the optical cable was replaced by a good coaxial one...
I imagine this accounts for part of the improvement, especially imaging, but wonder if only the optical cable would have been responsible for the boomy bassline on the Blade 2 vs Kef reference 5... |
Well it took longer then I thought but I finally took the plunge...and got the KEF BLADES... yep the big ones!
one word: amazing!
they work perfect in my room, they sit at exactly the place were my bw800 matrix sat and sound gorgeous there...
imaging, bass, timbre... just perfect!
|
Thank you Audiotroy!
since I am in Belgium however, it would have been difficult to get a pair from USA...
I am using the Soundcare “flat feet” spikes on them, which are ideal in combination with wooden floor, and very easy to move as well.
I agree with your opinion that a properly set up pair of Kef Blades sounds superb... I heard both big and small Blades sound amazing and rubbish on shows or demos... it is just a question of what is driving them and the front end... magic in = magic out, rubbish in... |
Hey guys, at no point Audiotroy tried to sell me the Blades, or anything else for that matter, they just shared their opinion.I think it is nice for a shop with hands on experience to share exactly that, their experience and advise.
Shops have the opportunity to mix and match a lot of gear and see what works and what doesn’t, so I value their participation on this forum a lot.
Which actually brings me to two small questions @audiotroy 1) when single wiring, is the lower or upper pair of connectors on the Blades preferred? 2) If I want to bring out the low mids (200 -300Hz) a bit more, which direction should I move the speakers best: towards each other, or closer to side walls or...? |
