KEF Blade Two - Unbelieveable

I set up a demo at Bestbuy Torrance and listened extensively to the Blade 2 driven by Classé Delta monoblocks and preamp with Audioquest higher-end interconnects. The Blades were in a treated listening room and placed against the long wall approx. 2.5ft out from the wall. The listening bench was situated rather close so my impressions here are formed with near-field listening so please keep that in mind. These loudspeakers may sound very different with greater distance from the speakers to the sweetspot.

The sound overall was uniformly superb. Bass, of course, was very satisfying. We switched an SVS sub in and out. Yes things improved marginally with the sub, but the Blades will get you there without an external sub. Soundstage width was excellent and imaging was very very good - to be expected by the Uni-Q technology coupled with a beautifully smooth, continuous curved, narrow baffle. I found this speaker to excel in bass-rich beat driven music (which I myself listen to a lot). For example, this speaker would serve R&B, Hip-hop, and Electronica very well indeed.

Comparing the sound of the Blade 2 to my son’s Magico S3, which is driven by a Devialet Expert Pro 220 CI, I find that the S3 is overall, a higher resolution transducer. In particular, the S3 is utterly open and clear in the all-important midrange. The Blade 2 mids however are exceptional and in truth not far off in performance. Bass, especially in the areas of weight and presence was captivating - a capability which is vital to me to me given the music I frequently listen to. Bass definition was not as well-resolved as the S3 however, which is extremely articulate and defined in this frequency region.

All in all the Blade 2 is an exceptional loudspeaker, although I believe the tweeter should be refined even more. As an aside; I have owned several KEF speakers in the distant past, including the uber-rare KEF Reference Maidstone 109. That speaker was extraordinary, but I could never quite come to love the coincident source driver technology. No matter what I did trying different amps, cables, sources, what have you; there was to my ears that touch of harshness (distortion?) at certain frequencies that may have been the result of placing one driver inside another, thus exciting resonances. Judging from the superb sound I heard, the Blade’s waveguide implementation has all but eliminated this. Co-incidentally (pardon the pun) I do love the sound of Tannoys as well, also a speaker family with the coincident souce driver array.

The Classé Delta is great. The preamp in particular, is a real beauty.

i would love to have the Blade 2 with the Classé electronics as my hifi, but alas I could not afford that now. If you can afford it you will love it.

@4afsanakhan Great writeup on your demo. I also agree that the Blade does not have the utmost in resolution as compared to Be drivers. However, that soundstage on the Blade is what kills me. That makes the sound seem so real life. 

@yyzsantabarbara 

Thanks so much! Kind of you to say. Yes they throw a massive stage especially in width and the sound is very real life. They are wonderful.  At the end of the day, I would gladly have them as my final loudspeaker. If only Santa Claus was listening 😁

Idk, I thought the persona 7f had the highest resolution to date and while the presentation couldn’t be more different, i never thought the blades lacked resolution? Maybe it’s that insane soundstage tricking me?  These are end game speakers.

It is not a lack of resolution, but at the level of the top end speakers I have heard the Blades did not have the most resolution. However, I consider them the best speakers I have heard by a lot. That is measured by the amount of fun I have listening to the Blades.