Kef Blades (1), being auditioned...please share your experience.


I am auditioning the Blades in my home. Aside from placement issues, I find a consistent anomaly in the low mid band frequencies and upper base frequencies. It is most recognizable in male vocals, for example, Gregory Porter. There is a crossover point where the voicing goes from warmish to just a bit thin with "edgy" overtones. Female vocals are stunning. Does anyone have any insight/experience that might help. This is consistent with CD, server, and vinyl sources.  It is also consistent with most male voices.  Your feedback is most welcome.
128x128jay53
Honestly I feel what you hear is similar with the Kefs. I can’t comment with the blades as I did not spend much time with them (as they were more than I wanted to spend) but I felt like the Reference 3 had a similar sound. 
The mids lacked dynamics a bit and the bass was strong but lacked texture. I walk away thinking the Reference 3 sounded like a sub satilight. All in all ok but I like the Olympica Nova III and Wilson Sabrina better. 
Did you have some other speakers in the same location before? What does your frequency response look like?

I've found the Blade1 need a lot of space to work with.  Keep them away from the walls and treat the first reflection points.
Fatiguingly bright with a distinctively recognizable sound of KEF; terrible sound, IMHO.
Hello,
The first thing I wonder is what is the amp/preamp you are using. Second is blades need serious space. At least 16’ wide and about 27’- 30’ deep. Third is are they broken in. All of these retail places do not get enough hours on there speakers. 200 hours on a tweeter and 500 on the drivers. Most places have one or two listening rooms. Yet there are 20 full size speakers that have not been broken in fully. Last but not least is the cables. You are auditioning $32,000 speakers for the full blades. You should have serious cables throughout your whole system. I am not saying you don’t. It amazes me when I hear people have $5,000 DACs still using the standard black power cable and a digital cable they spent $15 on. I am going to recommend Revel speakers. Try the 328be. The whole speaker is really good. The closest to the Blade 2s would be the Revel Salon 2s but for half the price of the blades you could get the 328be. The tweeter and mids are incredible. I am auditioning from https://holmaudio.com/
the Revel M126be bookshelf speakers right now to get a feel for the sound signature until I can demo the 228be which are out on demo to someone else. These small bookshelf speakers filled a 14’ x 24’ room. I do have 2 REL subs to cover below 50hz but you would not need to do that with the bigger speakers which can go down to 22hz. I hope this helped.