KEF Blade Two - Unbelieveable

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.