Thinking of Kef Blade 2 to replace Revel Salon 2

I’ve talked to people who denied mutliole high end speakers, including ones >$50K, they all said the Blades were the best out of all of them.  
  
Only true contender between $10K-$30K is the Salk SoundScape 12. Something like a B&W is the opposite of what you want, they intentially color the sound in the treble.  

So why not just decide to go with the blade2's and build a system around them? I really enjoy my Salon2's, but my first hi end speakers were Kef R105/3's the first uniq Reference speakers from kef and they were pretty amazing once I got the components right and that's the key. My salons sound good to great dependent on what's driving them, my uniq kefs could sound down right nasty with the wrong amps driving them. Just saying, don't connect your new blade2's to an emotiva amp and come back here complaining they're too harsh. The Revels may seem to revealing but they're always musical.

The Blade 2 is crossed over to the side woofers at 320hz. This eliminates the point source and must create an ambiance effect with the reflections. Interesting design. 

I owned the Salon 1 in a great room for over 5 years. It was enjoyable but not the best I had heard at that time. I later heard the Thiel CS 3.7 and thought that was a much better speaker than the Salon 1. I then heard the Blade1 and felt that was even better than the Thiel CS 3.7.

The thing I want the most from a speaker is for it to disappear and not feel like the sound is coming from a speaker. The Blade 1 and CS 3.7 did this better than the Salon 1. 

I also think the KEF LS50 has a better top end than the Salon1. The Salon1 has the rear firing tweeter that the Salon2 does not have.

I heard the Salon2 at a dealer and thought it was similar to my Salon1 but with more top end detail.

I will be buying the Blade 2 in the next 6 months.

Great move yystandabarbara, the Blades are really impressive, you still may want to consider the Blade ones, as they still sound larger with even greater bass output then the Blade 2.

Personally we have heard the Salon’s and they were nice speakers, never got the same spread of sound with the Salons, they always seemed to sound more like speakers then the way the Blades disperse sound into the room.

The Uni Q is a fantastic driver which becase it is a true point source can do things that a non point source configuration just can’t do.

The Salon’s are still an excellent speaker just one starting to show its age vs some of the newer designs.

All it takes is to read the KEF whitepaper on the Blades to see the remarkable extent of the engineering that KEF went to in creating the Blades drivers.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ