Magico S5 vs KEF Blade 2 vs TAD Evo One vs YG Kipod II Sig w/pwr bass

Wow this is a tough one, these are all good speakers here is my take as someone who knows all of these speakers:

1: Tad Evolution is a good speaker transparent not particularily great in the bass good sound stage never was blown away by the TADs includigng the big models.

2: YG in all the shows we have heard them they tend to sound okay most of the time, we did the New York Audio show in 2012 with the big Kef Blades on an all Chord setup about $125k  worth of gear and heard the $107 Sonja setup on all Solution a $400k setup and came away with the Kef Blades at $32k sounded just as good, here the Sonja's did sound very good, heard an old Kipod demo with dual Krells years ago and that demo they did sound very good. 

In comparison to the other speakers The YG are not as transparent. We heard the $25k 2 way model at the last New York audio show and was not impressed at all. You have to hear them for yourself. 

3: Magicos are a love hate speaker, they are very well made, have good bass but not super deep, good sound staging, to my ear they are sterile and lack musicallity, but others love em. 

Personally I would take a Focal Sopra over these, as well as used Rockport.  I would also recommend that you listen to the new Persona 5f very transparent, very holographic, with surprisingly deep bass, nice size and nice looking.

Sometimes buying new will get you a better sound for less or the same money as buying a used expensive speaker.

As a Kef Blade dealer I do think we are biased. Howver, they are really amazing when setup with good equipment, your Pass and Briscati stuff are good, I would ditch the Parasoud preamp it is okay it is not a great preamp no matter what the reviews say, we had a full Halo reference setup with JC 2 and JC 1 monos, Electrocompaniet gear sounded way better for not much more money.  We have a demo set of Blades with cosmetic damage at the same price as a pair of Blade 2 if you are interested. Damage is one scratch and the speakers need a new base. 

Look for a BAT VK 52  or a used Pass preamp, if you want a great sounding preamp a bit more tuby Cary SLP 98. Personally we much prefer a tube front end with a solid state amplifier.

Another option for you would be to listen to these speakers at a dealer with the proviso that you would purchase a dealer demo if they have one, you would be surprised how many dealers might have a slightly dinged up product that they would sell for the same price or nearly the same price at what many people sell used products for and you would get a full warranty and the service and support of a good dealer. 

Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ

Here are a few points, fof you to consider.

Your room is way bigger in terms of bass output due to the Cathederal ceiling, so a speaker with deeper bass is going to sound better.

Bass requirements in a room are based on total room volume , so a tall ceiling means you have a commensurate need for more bass output compared to a room with a shorter ceiling. 

As per our Kef Blades we can get a new base but want to sell the speakers first. The base is mechanically fine but the paint on the bottom came off due to an accident. 

Kef Blade vs Blade 2, Blades have considerably more bass and a bigger sound. 

The issue you have if you are on the short wall is you do not have a lot of room side to side, so after some delibration I would rule out the Kef's as the side firing woofers would play havoic on the 12 foot width.

Now if you are on the long side and have 23 feet width the Kefs will work well. 

Our demo room is 26 long by 20 wide with 10 foot ceilings, we are only about 8 feet away from the speakers and they work wonderfully as near field monitors. 

The Uni q, coaxial driver, enables the speaker to be very coherent and eliminates issues with imaging in a less then ideal setup. 

The Kefs are very transparent clean and fast, bass is prodigious and well defined. 

Another point the Kefs are very narrow and look good in many rooms.

If you are near the East Coast we have a set for you to hear. 

As per preamps it depends on where you want to go, Briscati is very neatural, Pass tends to sound a bit on the warm side.

Go with a BAT in your price range or the VTL they are both neautral yet are more satisfying to listen to vs the Parasound which is okay at best. 

You should get the speakers first and then listen to the setup if you want warmth go Cary, if you want neutral with good soundstaging and detail go with the VTL or BAT

Hope that helps. 

Dave Owner
Audio Doctor NJ

The base can be repaired. I would have to find out how much to fix. Other than that they are in good shape one small scratch on the top.

You are not that far about three and a half hours from us.

We have the Kef Blades, Dali Epicon 8, Paradigm Persona, Legacy speakers and tons of other cool toys for you to listen to. 

It would be fun to have you over for a visit

Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ

As a dealer selling Blades as well as lots of other great gear, this post goes out to many of you who dis the Blades.

We did the 2012 New York Audio Show with the Blades in a system with Chord Reference electronics and an Esoteric D02 dac. This was an expensive system with $30k amps a $20k preamp a $22k Dac etc.
Total system cost around $100k

I went down the hall to listen to the GTT room, YG Sonja $107k Solution amps mono blocks $80 or $120k a pair, Solution preamp $40k Solution Phono stage $40k digital was also very very expensive figured the room was around $400k.

The reality of this demo was his system was good it wasn’t better then ours for 4 times the price, Blades were $32k vs YG Sonja $107k pretty steep difference.

The issue comes down to Audio Snobbery the concept that the dedicated tiny company always builds better products than the big guys it isnt true.

If you ever read the Kef Blade technical guide which details the lengths that the Kef engineers went to reduce or eliminate distortion and advanced driver research it would boggle your mind how many unique technologies that their engineers concocted in terms of desiging and implementing the Blades.

The Kef engineers also spent around $3 million dollars on this project. Wilson in their entirty has never spent $3 million on anything, nor does Rockport, YG, or Magico. They can’t these companies yearly sales are probably less than $10 million a year companies the size of Kef are around $100-300 million a year in global sales.

I have never liked Magico always too dry, never musical. TAD reminds me of Rahido impressive resolution but not musical enough, and a tad too bright.

So the idea that a Kef or a Paradigm can’t build a speaker system which can compete with the best in the world is bunk.

A properly setup pair of Blades can easily do battle with a pair of Wilson Maxx 3 and a pair of their $110k replacement.

Only one English reviewer had the balls to say that.

The American press is too cowed by the advertising dollar to call out this fact.

The sound in our room was awesome, deep tight room shaking bass, a huge three dimensional sound stage, and remarkably clarity.

As per the gentleman who was proposing a set of YG Carmels or Magico S1 get your acoustics straight.

The mans room seems small at 12 * 23 but when you factor in the Cathedral ceiling at 16 feet you are basically doubling the amount of air the speakers have to move, so acoustically in the bass the room appears quite large.

You guys are also missing the point that the Kef Blades behave as a point source radiator and works extremely well when and if you are sitting close to the speaker. The Blades sound like a gigantic mini monitor.

They have the pin point imaging of a tiny speaker with gigantic sound stage and thrilling deep and tight bass and there dynamics are ridiculous, crank up a pair with 300-400 watts and they just get loud without strain, or distortion.

Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ

Soix are you talking Pipedreams or the newer iteration which is the Scaeana Iso Linear Array. Huge difference between these systems.

The Scaeanas are amazing speakers but are $60k to $120k depending on version and yes I would take those over almost anything. They do big better than almost anything just fabulous speakers.   

Over the last ten years we have had the Kef Blades, the Scaean Iso Linear Array and the Polymer MKX-S in the shop and have had the Kharma Grand Exquites the $120k current version.

The Blades are awesome speakers for their price brand new, for $15-20k a pair used they are a steal.

Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ

Yes for $18k they are a big sounding speaker, however, the original Nearfield acoustics do not have the much greater sound staging, or the transparency of the Scaena speakers.

So yes they are still good, and on paper that is a good deal but the original Pipedreams was a speaker of its day, I would much prefer a nice good condition set of Infinity IRS Betas over those.

I would take a set of Blades any day of the week.

Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ

fsmithjack, as I mentioned you have to totally retrain your brain. 

A Magico has a much more pronounced treble than the Rythems. I know the Rythems are an improved Lowthar type design but without a doubt they do sound much more shelved in the top end compared to a state of the art Beryilium or Diamond tweeter, hence you are hearing both the good and bad of the recording world.

As you improve your components by adding a real power conditioner, adding room tuning, adding a real server, you will be able to selectively tune the system to sound the way that you like.

I still stick to my guns that an Audience power conditioner will give you just the right amount of warmth without taking away too much detail.

If you want a line on really cheap warm sounding cable try the Soundstring line, sounded a lot like the Kubalas at 1/3 the price. The Gen II. 

We have a demo pair of Cj arts 275 watts of pure tube goodness.