KEF Blade Two - Unbelieveable

I have heard the Reference 3 and it can’t be too far behind when played within their limits

I imagine you are used to the house sound and like it and imagine the Reference 3 or even Reference 1 would do the trick. The LS50 asks a lot of that tiny driver.

I have Ref 1s and they are fantastic. With a few subwoofers of course. 

People say that the REF line is a baby Blade but for me it is not like the Blades. The Blade is my fav speaker and I unfortunately cannot fit it in my house. The next place I move to will have space for the Blades.

The REF line does not disappear like the Blade, but then again nothing I heard does. I found the REF1 was my fav since it did a good job of disappearing.

My current office speaker is pretty good and only available used, it is the Thiel CS3.7 and sort of sounds like the Blades. 

I like the Yamaha NS5000 and will get that one if I continue to stay at my current residence. It is a fabulous speaker. Do not let the bookshelf designation fool you. It is like a floorstander. This is my replacement for the Blades.

The Vivid lineup also is Blade like. The Kaya 45 maybe affordable.

BTW - some used KEF Blades were selling for $10K to $13K in the recent past. KEF will be upgrading the tweeter and mid driver with the META design very soon. That may cause some more used models to show up.

I also have the KEF LS50 in my big room with the KEF KC62 sub. I drive them with the Benchmark AHB2 monos. I would be curious to hear the Blades with these monos. They cannot drive my Thiel CS3.7 to the best levels but the Blades are likely easier to drive.

I recently replaced a Parasound A21+. It sounded OK but the Parasound JC5 maybe something to consider. It is supposed to be more refined (my complaint about the A21+) and more powerful. The Blades will like power.

I have heard Blades demoed with Hegel 360 integrated and Hegel mono blocks. Both were pretty good pairings.

The CODA #8 would also be a good amp with the Blades. As would a KRELL XD amp. I have both and I love both of them.

These amps I suggest are in the $6K-ish range which will help save money to buy the Blades.

@martinman , The Blades are a brilliant design if you can get on with the looks. Don't compromise! Your Hint6 will drive them beautifully. An interim step is just a waste of money. Get out your cookie jar and start throwing money in there and save up. In the mean while look for a used pair and good deals like open box and demo units. It took me a decade to get the speakers I wanted. You know what you want. Go for it!

Do you have ls50s or the newer metas? I have both. Metas are a step in that direction in regards to overall clarity and detail and might cut it in a smaller room with powered sub or two unless you require higher Spl say >90db approximately or so. Active crossover to offload more work to sub would improve that further. 

Interesting point about the Metas -- i demoed those too while I was there.  The detail and refinement were there, but man, the blades are an end-game setup.  

The blades were w/o sub - I just can't get over how great they sound.  I think @mijostyn is right - time to start saving.  I mean, an interim step will just delay the inevitable!  

Realistically though, can you find these on the used market?  How much can I expect to spend?  

@martinman , I have no idea what they would go for and there may not be any on the used market but it never hurts to keep an eye on it while you are saving. You never know what might come along! 

Well when you hear a product that you just have to have.....why do anything else? Start saving and make it so! Life is too short....

I see more and more zero interest finance options around these days as well, just be sure to pay it off in time to avoid getting zapped with interest....

Also I would expect the new technology that went into the ls50 meta's to start finding its way into other kef models over the next year or so.  That might help one get closer to the Blades for less perhaps.   We will see.

Blades are one design I could see myself living with were I to convince myself I needed to drop that much money on new speakers to be happy.

Used Kef blade for Sale | HifiShark.com

KEF Blade 2 High Gloss Black. Mint! For Sale - US Audio Mart

mapman

19,782 posts

12-16-2021 12:15pm

Well when you hear a product that you just have to have.....why do anything else? Start saving and make it so! Life is too short....

Spot on!!

.... or get them used for cheaper

@martinman , where did you hear the demo? I am asking because the local Magnolia has a similar setup that I heard last year and the Blades sounded awesome.

Great, and here I was so happy with my LS50's...

I have wanted to hear a set of the Blades, guessing I would have the same reaction. Alas, I have no space for something that large, but we can dream.

As others have mentioned there have been some sales in the $12k-$14k in the last six months. 

Here's a pair for $14K 

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649804571-kef-blade-2-high-gloss-black-mint/

I just watched a Steve Wilson concert on a DVD ran through a less than a $100 Sony bluray player and an average big screen Sony TV hooked up to my stereo system. It sounded great in my house of stereo. Point being, whether it's the cheap bluray, the better digital system or the very good analog one, they all sound excellent because of the room and acoustic treatments they're in. Equipment alone may get you there, but likely at a much higher cost than getting the room properly built and acoustically treated. However I do have $18,000 speakers so I don't reject having good equipment, just saying that is definitely not all there is to achieving good sound.

They're so good they even sound better than a live performance.

What minimum size room for Blade Two?

yyzsantabarbra,

Have you heard anything new about the meta update?  I wonder what’s going to be involved in upgrading my Ref 5’s when the time comes?

All the best.

JD

martinman,

 I still haven’t heard either Blade, but still have hopes. I’m guessing that it doesn’t sound like any other speaker KEF sells. The design is totally different and so are the drivers and crossovers. 
 

All the best.

JD

@curiousjim I have not heard anything other than the LS50 Meta announcement where they said the META will trickle UP to the Rererence and Blade lineup. It only makes sense given the age of the 2 lines. I thought it would have been ready for the holiday season, but a lot of things are not running as expected.

I’m guessing that it doesn’t sound like any other speaker KEF sells.

There is a lot of sonic resemblance to the Reference line and even the LS50. It’s just that on the Blades it is turned up to 11.

I spent a lot of time researching room size for the Blades. I have a 13’ W x 22’ L x 25’H (maybe higher) living room. That is a lot of volume, but I think too small. A dealer whom I bought a lot of gear from told me that the Blades he sells would work there. I do not believe him on that from when I have heard the Blades. I think you need to place the Blades in a front wall around 16+ feet. I cannot do that in my room

Those side firing woofers need some space to get the Blade magic. People have put it in rooms like mine, but I think it would be a bit of a compromise sonically. I am listening to the Thiel CS3.7 in my small office and I am not getting the best out of the speakers. I have made it sound very good, but I know the room is holding my speaker back.

I have the blade’s in a 17x27x7’ basement listening room and they are special. A H360 drives them with an affordable mqa dac I use to stream tidal. A larger room might require more power but this system sounds amazing. I think meta in the blades would be redundant after reading up on their website. Over the last 7 years I’ve been buying some really great speakers....These are staying!

I started with the blade two. I loved them. There was a blemish in the finish, so I upgraded to the blades. I’m driving them with a McIntosh mc452 and c53 preamp. These speakers just floor me every time that I listen to them. They are in a relatively small room, and they perform wonderfully. My house is very heavily insulated including all interior walls. If your budget allows for it and you like the looks, they are well worth it. I’m not sure that I would buy these speakers on the used market unless I could pick them up locally as they are to easily damaged in shipping. I know this as I’ve had multiple pairs due to shipping damage! KEF has been a very stand up company about making it right. For me it was worth purchasing new for the warranty. Also you never know how hard used speakers have been railed imho. Rock on!😎

I've always been fond of the blades.

Ive heard some excellent speakers over the years and I demo'd these to a very nice (and expensive) pair of vivid speakers but the blades I simply found to be better. Once I switched from copper speaker cables to an great pair of silver it was game over. Has synergy with my gryphon amp

I highly recommend you save up it's really worth it

^^^ any specific Gryphon amp? tia

I saw a pair of black Blade 2 today tagged at $15k in Just Audio in Baltimore County MD. Bought my ls50 metas there last year.  

For starters, I would never spend 25k on a speaker without hearing them in my room.  Or even 10k, for that matter.  If you buy used, that's another matter.  Onto the money aspect, I don't encourage excessive spending, but I've found that one way to avoid upgraditis is to buy something at the top end of your financial comfort zone, to the point where the next upgrade is totally unfeasible. As others have mentioned, there are low-interest credit card loans, which would make the purchase more financially sound.  Also, audio prices are rising every time you sneeze.  I was looking at a pair of $3500 speakers and they went up to $4k in just a few months.  My Harbeth SHL5s went from $4k in 2005 to 8K now.  Seems that if you can get a used pair it would be great, but if you do buy new, sometimes just biting the bullet works out best.  But do hear them in your room. 

A hard and fast rule for me. If a speaker sounds good in a show room or in ANY room, I can make it sound good in my room. It has never failed. The room and grid is 50% of the sound. The rest is Speakers, Gear, cabling, and placement.

Several times friends having issues with speakers use to bring them to the shop. 30 minutes later they were happy unless there was a speaker driver issue. It was always THEIR room and a lack of certain treatments in that room. Usually the partner was the biggest problem, it wasn't an issue to be fixed either. Loose the partner or fix the room. Make a choice. I always choose the room, loose the crap head partner, life is way to short.. LOL Dog, Rabbit and the same partner for 49 years. WAY to long.. Been dealing with a whopper for the last 3 weeks.

Merry Christmas and happy gift give away. I like watching kids and the dog open presents.. Nothing better.

Regards

Typically speaker companies have a house sound. The sound becomes more substantial (versus thinner) tighter with more detail with increasing cost. So, for me, auditioning speaker brands have led me to the sound I wanted… then upgrading (lots of research of course) within the product line is very safe unheard.

The other issue is the electronics driving them and the acoustics of where you hear them can have very substantial influence on the sound… it takes many years of experience to be able to separate what is sound characteristic is coming from what.

So the more auditioning of anything you can is helpful in developing listening skills.

I am reminded of a guy here a while ago that bought a set of world class speakers from a dealer and then kept going back lusting after a different similar different brand at the dealer, before it came out that the dealer was powering the other speakers with electronics about $200K more expensive than his in a highly tuned room. Not surprising they sounded better.

There is indeed an interim step between your LS50s & a new Blade. It’s the latest Blade, used.

This one has been advertised for only a week (latest model) but would likely be available for half price with a little negotiating. You might want to wait a couple or a few weeks as it’s unlikely to sell during the Xmas season or in proximity to the New Year. If you live within driving distance, visiting would be good idea. Save on shipping & negotiation is far easier & persuasive in person, with cash in hand. >

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.

The comparison with the magico isn't surprising to me. I haven't heard them but listener impressions are pretty consistent. Since the blades are the most expensive speakers i've heard outside a show i'll trust the experiences from both of you. I'm very fortunate to have these speakers that came up for sale 15 minutes from my house at only a year old and very close to half price.

I see the Blade is a 4 Ohm speaker.  I have read that the 4 Ohm draw can be a problem for some amps, drawing too much current, causing clipping and in some cases damage to the amp.  When using an integrated amp, is the answer to simply have enough power to drive the 4 Ohm speaker at higher volumes.  If so, what is the minimum recommended amp power rating to safely drive the Blade speaker? 

I’m using a hegel H360 and can comfortably drive them to 100-105 db peaks, but the guys that know the business say my speakers would sound better with better power. 

I usually listen at low 70’s db, when I go crazy in the mid 80’s. 100db… whoa.

@ghdprentice   What are you driving them with?

IMO, just because you liked a set of speakers at some show doesn’t mean you can get the same performance: good or bad. There are many things that you have to consider before making a purchase of some speaker you liked:

1) listening room. You might have loved the sound of the Wilson Chronosonic XVX speakers in a treated room of 30’ x 20’ x 15’ but don’t think you can get the same sound in a 15’ x 12’ x 8’ room.

2) audio equipment/system synergy matched to your speakers. You might have heard these Wilson’s with $300k or more worth of equipment and you might not have that level of equipment that might be needed to get the best sound out of a certain speaker.

The best bet is to find a speaker you like and demo it in your house with your equipment to tell if you like the sound quality or not

The Blades go down to 3 Ohms if I remember the Stereophile review correctly. Most SS amps are rated at 4-Ohms and 8-Ohms continuous power. Here are some amps I would consider for the Blades that are not outrageously expensive. The KRELL and CODA can go down to 2-Ohms, I asked the designers on that. I have not owned the other 2, except a Parasound A21+ which is also a low-cost powerhouse.

- CODA #8, CODA #16 

- KRELL Duo 300XD 

- Parasound JC5

- Hegel 360, 390, 590

in terms of the resolution,

The blades are very resolving and I found them to be excellent, but not the best out there. I am friends with the owner of vivid giya g1s. Now THAT is highly resolving. Although honestly i wouldnt trade with him as the vivids lack in other areas.

The blades have such a tremendous soundstage.. the width, the imaging, the base response...it had almost everything.....But i wanted it ALL.

So, what did I do to give me what I wanted? I bought a pair of silver speaker cables from stealth audio. The cloud 99. Even the ends are terminated in silver. They are quite literally the most airy speaker cables I have ever heard and I’m comparing them to cables costing 4 times as much. The speed, the transparency and clarity.

Yet, it came with drawbacks. Is it a tad bit of brightness that I heard? How did i fix that to give me all the pros and no cons?

I went ahead and upgraded some other cables. One of which was the Galileo SX pc on my power conditioner. In particular, it was the gold tuning bullet that balanced out the silver speaker cables and gave me the sound that I have been looking for.

Now i compare the blades with speakers I’ve heard costing $75k+ and they are in line and in many cases better sounding to me than those

For those who want even more resolution, remember that the speakers are part of a larger overall system that can easily be balanced to give you what you want.

The blades have so so much going for them at that price point that it’s easy to make them sound like some ultra flagships from uber high end companies.

They are really end game speakers

The imaging and soundstage are really something to behold. When i listen to some older recordings I actually dont like how wide it can image....like i can pinpoint certain instruments all the way deep to the right or left and sometimes it seems so far that it goes past the width of my room. It can be distracting actually because the imaging is so good you cant even ignore it you might literally stare at the sides of the room lol. It’s probably accurate though. Older recordings didnt digitally correct everything and if for example a guitarist was recording at the side of a large recoding studio you will hear that and pin point exactly where he was standing during the recording. It’s quite accurate though

On good recordings they are truly amazing

@rbstehno 

I am driving my system with Audio Research Reference 160s… I actually keep it in triode mode so 1/2 the power ~ 75 wats per channel. 

I don’t doubt these speakers are being held back in my system, The hegel h360 is doing the job good enough, but the dealer I bought it from has a H590 store demo that we were starting to talk about that I will be trying at home shortly after Xmas. That will be interesting. 

@steve59   I had the H360 and loved it.  Had a chance to buy the H590, only 6 months old, at a huge discount, so it's mine now.  Slight improvement with the onboard DAC and 300 watts per channel.  I have read some very interesting reviews on the Sanders Magtech Amp.  Given the Blade 4 OHM characteristics, the Sanders seems to bring a lot to the conversation?   

http://sanderssoundsystems.com/products/amplifiers/magtech-amp

This is a crazy idea that I have but the chances of me moving house are not that great in this CA housing market. However, the chances of me getting a Blade is much more doable.

The last todo audio thing I want to do is replace my speakers in the living room, our fun room with something bigger. The Yamaha NS5000 was the plan but I do like the Blade 2 better. My other 2 systems are now completed.

What do you Blade users think if I replaced the LS50s in these photos with the Blade 2. To the right of the right speaker, I have a partial wall and an opening to the family room. So, lots of volume in this space, even if the dimensions are not wide. I have a staircase on the opposite wall of where the system resides.

I am not looking for audiophile perfection here. Just to understand if placing the Blade 2 so close to the wall would work? I will not put a speaker on the short wall.

Living Room System | Virtual Listening Room (audiogon.com)

I would move around some of the shevling.

Big twin, thanks for the heads up, the speakers are bought used because I’m playing out of my league so getting the components right is important.

yyz, After having the blades awhile I went to a dealer that had the blade 2’s and was surprised at how much smaller they were, only 5’’ shorter but considerably less deep and the style is less imposing than the reference 5, but if it was me I would either buy used at a price I can recoup or stick with the NS5000. My blades are nearly 5’ from any reflecting surface! 

@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.