As a displaying Blade dealer and someone with 25 years of experience and I was also one of the top Wilson salespersons in the country I think I am uber qualified to discuss both companies products.
The Blade is a totally polarizing speaker from a company that is emerging out of its long slumber. Kef's current product line is competitive with any of the best high end brands, their earlier products were good but too flawed.
In terms of design, technology and research and development KEF can outspend Wilson, Magico, YG acoustics and ten other speaker companies combined. The Blade program was over 1 million dollars spent in R&D over five years, out of the Blade program came exciting technological advances in cabinet and driver construction.
We had the Blades setup in the poorly covered NY Audio Show, where reviewers did not bring their own music, nor did they spend any private time in the rooms like they do when they are at CES.
I walked the show and listened to both the big YG and the MBL's and the sound we were getting out of the Blades was as good as the big YG which were $120,000 speakers being driven by $160,000.00 worth of electronics!
In my shop I don't get the extremely deep bass we got in
the Waldorf, which demonstrates that the Blades are more room dependent than most other speakers, and this should be self evident when you have side firing woofers.
What the Blades did do in this setup was a gigantic soundstage, thrilling dynamics, extremely deep bass, with a fully coherent sound. To my ears and experience they sounded very much like a pair of $70k Wilson Maxx with greater coherence and a more relaxed top end.
I have never heard a $30k speaker sound like a $70k speaker until the Blade came along.
Now part of the reason with this other dealer may be his room or partnering gear, people who heard the Blades at shows have either been impressed or not. We sell Parasound gear which is excellent for the price but pales in comparison to the sound we get from the Blades when driven by Chord electronics, so as I said you have a magnificent but very tricky speaker with the Blades, at many shows Kef showed with the good Parasound gear but not with the more exotic and expensive electronics, sources and cabling which most people would pair with them, at a recent show with Mac gear the reviewer was very impressed.
The Wilson Alexia is basically a Watt Puppy with a more flexible way of increasing the speakers coherence than the WP's alignment.
Now the Wilson sound has always been dramatic and very vivid. The overall presentation of the Alexia will not be as big as the Blade so it will come down to personal taste and what you value, both speaker image very well and are very dynamic.
I would listen to both and then make up my mind, I would advise you that if you can set up the Blades well you can not find a better speaker for that amount of money, the Blades are a steal for what they do.
