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Amps for KEF Blade 2

I am looking for advice from owners or dealers of the KEF Blade 2 loudspeakers. I am concerned my current pair of amps will not be sufficient for the B2s because of an article written about the original Blades published on July 5, 2013 in The Absolute Sound:

"The Blades have a nasty kick in their crossover that will suck an amplifier dry quicker than a student downing free tequila shots ... Just don’t be tempted to cheapskate on the driving amps, or you’ll live to regret it. Tube amps at least have an output transformer to hide behind, but when the Blades suck out a solid-state design, they celebrate by spotlighting their tweeter something chronic. To give you some idea of the lengths required, the otherwise excellent Rowland 625 [550 watts into 4 Ohms] wasn’t up to the job, it taking a pair of the 725 monoblocs [650 watts into 4 Ohms] to restore order. "

Are the Blade 2s just as demanding as the original Blades in terms of amplification? I would guess not due to the smaller 6.5 inch woofers, but this is just an uneducated guess. I own a pair of Benchmark AHB2 amps, which according to the manufacturer produce “a little over 500 watts into 4 Ohms”. Will this be enough?
e91811
theothergreg
222 posts
 
KEF uses Electrocompaniet Nemo monoblocks to drive the Blades in their factory museum:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQBOMv4LY2E

They might know a little something about driving them....
yyzsantabarbara
4,808 posts
 
KEF uses a variety of amps to demo the Blades. The latest love connection seems to be with Hegel. The new Hegel 590 integrated and the Blade have some sort of development deal.
pokey77
1,266 posts
 
I've heard the KEF Blade 2 with Hegel H360 and their reference separates and it was very good on both. Also heard the big Blade with the Luxman 900 separates and again it was really good. Not sure which I liked best since that was around 6-8 months apart. I was surprised how good the H360 was with the Blade 2s though.
steve59's avatar
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steve59
1,760 posts
 
I have the h360 and used it to drive a pair of salon 2's which it did nicely, but not dynamically and that's a deal breaker for me. When I suggested bi-amping horizontally the crowd' overall said it wouldn't make a difference? My h360 isn't going anywhere and I expect the Blades will sound the same, as in 'good but limited'. What do you guy's think? if I bought a pair of steller 700's to run the bass and the hegel on top would that be enough headroom to let these sing? 
surreyzone
1 posts
 
I have had the Blades for one week. Currently running on woefully under-powered NAD M3 integrated (described as dual mono block design) and actually the Kefs sound rather good.
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