Are the KEF Blade/Blade 2 Metas a Significant Upgrade from Blade?

I own the older version of Kef Blade twos . The dealer I bought them from has a pair of new Kef Blade twos metas . My wife and I heard them after he had them for about 9 days or so .  He had a little over 200 hours on them .  They sounded good but not as good as I thought they would . We went back about 2 1/2 weeks later . He had played music on them non-stop . They sounded so much better , it was such a startling difference.  The Blade two metas do need a lot of run in time to sound at their best .  They are overall better sounding , bigger soundstage , better depth, clarity or transparency is improved .  If you read up on them they changed the UniQ driver 12 different ways , they changed 9 parts in the crossover .  I do remember when I first got my Kef Blade twos it took about 400 hours for them to sound their best !  Looks like you need that much if not more time to get Metas to shine .  Not all speakers are like this obviously.  But to my wife and my ears the Blade two metas are noticeably better . This was our experience!

@jrn Thanks to you and your wife. Very useful info for me.

Can you tell me what amps the dealer was using? I think I am going to go with the CODA #16 amp for the Blade 2 Meta. I am also very intrigued by the upcoming KRELL KSA 400i amp, but that 25-inch depth of that amp may make it incompatible with the wife.

I have the KRELL 175XD upon which the upcoming KSA 400i is derived from.

that amp is listing around $35,000! 

yyzsantabarbara  Stereo dealer was using Naim 500 series amp and preamp and a Naim streamer to play Kef Blade twos metas ! 

@steve59 I can save up for that crazy KRELL since I have a KRELL Duo 175XD available for the short term for the Blade 2. I tested this amp with my prior harder to drive Thiel CS3.7 and it was excellent. 

I would normally never consider such an amp expenditure since there are many other great choices at much lower cost. However, the KRELL 175XD is pretty fantastic and so I will be giving the KSA 400i a good look. The biggest drawback for me is the 25-iinch depth of the casework. I think that is a deal breaker with the wife.

I do think sanity will prevail and I will most likely buy the CODA #16 for the Blades and return the KRELL 175XD to my office system.

@jn Thanks.I heard those amps with maybe Wilson. It was a dealer system that had 4 subs stacked on top of each other. Rather nuts.