Are the KEF Blade/Blade 2 Metas a Significant Upgrade from Blade?

My listening room is 19 X 14 X 7.  Is that too small to realize the potential of Blade 2s?  I'm using KEF Reference 1s, low-passed to a pair of Velodyne HGS-15 with room correction and high-passed by a passive balanced Marchand filter.  Amps are Ayer VX-5 Twenty or Parasound JC 1s. 

You can put the Blades 9 inches from the front wall (per KEF UK and the manual). The Reference line needs 1 foot.

If you put the Blades along the 19 foot wall it would work rather well. Other people have put the Blades along a 14 foot wall but I think that would be a waste of the Blades ability to create a massive soundstage.

I will put mine on the LONG wall which opens up to the Family room. I also have 25 foot ceiling, so when you add up the volume of the space it is like a big room. Volume is important to consider because the Blades have bass.

The online  Stereophile review of the Blade 2 talks about room size and the Blades. That review was a bit puzzling. More info about the music reviewed rather than writing about the speaker.

I spoke with Vivid Audio about their side firing woofers and proximity to side walls. They said it depends on the building matter used in the walls. I think brick was bad (I need to search my emails).

If the room turns out to be too small, and you are a ROON or JRiver streaming user, you can contact Mitch Barnett at Accurate Sound and let him do his magic on your room + speaker + placement = accurate sound.

I used his remote service for my small office when I had Thiel CS3.7's in there. I doubt I will need help setting up the Blade 2 in my Livingroom, but that security blanket exists for me. He does an incredible job.

Search on A'gon if interested. I wrote a lot of my experience using the Convolution filter of ROON that was created by Mitch for my room and speakers.

I have had the original Blade One and now the Blade One Meta. The METAs are not broken in yet but are a great improvement in treble extension which is an acid test. I have not put the factory spikes on the METAs because I'm waiting for the GAIA footers with the carpet spike option. I'll post further when this has been done and the METAs are broken in. 

John Hirsch

Thanks for all your comments. John Hirsch; thank you and we look forward to your further comments about midrange improvements, etc with your new Blade Metas.

Enjoy!

My LS50 Metas are maybe broken-in today and I am amazed at how much better it is than the old LS50. So much more clarity, better imaging, and a real effortless sound. I never felt that the LS50 sound veiled but today I do. In comparison, the old LS50 seems to be constrained somehow. Though I never had that feeling prior to comparing with the LS50 Meta today.

The Meta also seems to have better bass. I do not even have the fast KEF KC62 sub back in the system yet. KEF Support is holding my sub hostage. Not sure what the heck they are doing with it.

I cannot wait to buy the Blade 2 Meta for my Livingroom. The Blade 2 Meta must be phenomenal.

I was DM’ing someone about a speaker for the Krell K-300i integrated they just bought and I mentioned the TAD ME1, which were great with Luxman gear (slightly warmer than Krell). After today’s LS50 Meta revelations I told him to try the LS50 Meta or Reference 1 Meta (depending on room size) before the much more expensive TAD ME1. The ME1 has a bit more detail but I do NOT feel the sound is overall better than the LS50 Meta.

I thought the TAD ME1 was better than the old KEF Reference and the old LS50. However, today I think the Reference 1 Meta could be as good as the TAD ME1. The LS50 Meta sure sounds as good as the ME1 in my 12 x 11 x 9 treated office. The ME1 is too big for this room.

I was planning on buying the $12K CAD Yamaha NS3000 from Canada, if the LS50 Meta was not great. Those plans are off.

I have about $15K of real clean sounding gear in front of the LS50 META and close to 400 watts of power so that must help the LS50 Meta a lot.