2. speakers
  3. 173192-1665

KEF Blade Two - Unbelieveable

I had a chance to demo the kef blade two today.  Each were powered by an Arcam mono-block.  Just unbelievable.  I never imagined music could sound this good.  I'm completely changed because of it.  

Here I thought my KEF LS50 w/ Parasound Hint6 & 2 subs was no slouch (and it still sounds good), but the Blades were on another planet.  I can't even describe it.  What a treat.  

So, now I come to you all to help me move on from the LS50s.  I just can't afford the Blades now - no way.  But i'm enamored by the dynamic and just. huge. soundstage.

I like the LS50s - Dynamics, soundstage, depth, detail.  I like how they image being co-axial.  Is there an interim step between the LS50s and Blades that I can step to??  I'd like to keep the Hint6 too.  

128x128martinman
yyzsantabarbara
4,811 posts
 

@steve59 Thanks, that is what I thought about front wall placement with the Blades. Every time I heard them (maybe 5 times) they always had distance from the front wall.

I guess I need to get rich and move to a bigger house.

steve59's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
steve59
1,761 posts
 

or leave California, lol

tleddy
8 posts
 

KEF R3 + subs... damn fine!  

rbstehno
1,432 posts
 

Before I spend $25k on any set of speakers, my room must be in perfect shape/treated so I can get the best out of my speaker.

yyz, for your room, I wouldn’t make a $25k investment and put them in this room. The room is the most important piece of your system, bad room, bad sound, no matter what you put in it.

As for Hegel, I e owned a few of their integrateds. They were nice but compromised. Their power is decent, but when you compare their power vs a standalone amp with the same claimed power, the Hegel falls short. I had the top of the line Hegel at the time and when I went with separates with the same power, the new power amp controlled the speaker much better.

The 2nd thing that’s compromised in the Hegel is the dac. I never used the internal dac because it just wasn’t that good. I have a really nice highly rated external dac. But 1 year at rmaf, in the Hegel room, I had them compare the built in dac in the h360 to their standalone dac, no comparison. Hegel isn’t the only vendor that compromises, when I went with separates, my new McIntosh preamp had a so called high quality dac built in and it was also just so so, I didn’t use it either. I bring this up because the h590 is up near $12k now, why compromise at this price? Depending on your setup, if you have an all digital setup, $12k will get you a high quality dac and amp (no preamp necessary), just go from dac to the amp

questforhifi
105 posts
 

Everyone says the Dac in the Hegel is really good but honestly they are comparing them to $2-3k dacs

The hegel is amazing at its price point, but it’s honestly lacking in general.

I also like to separate my streaming as well, isolate the power supply, ext. The hegel has everything in one box which is convenient but it simply isnt as good as separates and that’s just science and engineering.

If you truly want to go the integrated route, something like the gryphon diablo which uses a passive pre-amp is preferable. you get the good without sacrificing while taking away the need for an additional power, cord interconnect, and the noise they add while saving substantial money

no matter what though i would look into a separate dac

 

More to discover