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

I took my second stop on the KEF train with the KEF LS50 Meta that arrived today. I spent the past week listening very intently to the old LS50 from 2012 because I replaced the driver. I think my son poked at one. Anyways, the driver replacement was easy and the old LS50 were sounding as they should. I am sending the old LS50 to my college bound nephew.

The new LS50 Meta with only 20 minutes of tunes is easy for me to hear the additional clarity of the sound. It is not as clear or clean sounding as my RAAL SR1a ribbons but it is better than the LS50. However, the goal for me was to get close to the SR1a in terms of clarity and I think the Meta are close.

The third stop for the KEF train will be the Blade 2 Meta. I got into a verbal agreement today to buy the DAC for the Blades, a used Musetec 005.

The Office system is now completed and will not be changed (ever). KEF LS50 Meta | KEF KC62 sub (using wireless) | Benchmark LA4 preamp | Benchmark AHB2 monos | Audience FrontRow speaker cable | Musetec 005 DAC

Still thinking of the amps for the Blade 2 Meta. I will try my existing KRELL Dou 175XD on them first with a CODA 07x peramp. It may need more power.

@ricevs I got your speaker tweak this weekend and have yet to try it out. I wanted to wait for the KEF LS50 Meta. Once the speakers are broken in I will plug then into the speaker terminations and give it a go. Unfortunately my speaker termination are banana. Spades would have been better for your tweak.

BTW - when Ric gives me some advice I listen, such as his recommendation of the Musetec DACs. He modded them in the past and told me to check it out.

Just listening to YYZ by Rush on the Metas. Wow, great choice to buy this speaker.

My listening room is 19 X 14 X 7.  Is that too small to realize the potential of Blade 2s?  I'm using KEF Reference 1s, low-passed to a pair of Velodyne HGS-15 with room correction and high-passed by a passive balanced Marchand filter.  Amps are Ayer VX-5 Twenty or Parasound JC 1s. 

You can put the Blades 9 inches from the front wall (per KEF UK and the manual). The Reference line needs 1 foot.

If you put the Blades along the 19 foot wall it would work rather well. Other people have put the Blades along a 14 foot wall but I think that would be a waste of the Blades ability to create a massive soundstage.

I will put mine on the LONG wall which opens up to the Family room. I also have 25 foot ceiling, so when you add up the volume of the space it is like a big room. Volume is important to consider because the Blades have bass.

The online  Stereophile review of the Blade 2 talks about room size and the Blades. That review was a bit puzzling. More info about the music reviewed rather than writing about the speaker.

I spoke with Vivid Audio about their side firing woofers and proximity to side walls. They said it depends on the building matter used in the walls. I think brick was bad (I need to search my emails).

If the room turns out to be too small, and you are a ROON or JRiver streaming user, you can contact Mitch Barnett at Accurate Sound and let him do his magic on your room + speaker + placement = accurate sound.

I used his remote service for my small office when I had Thiel CS3.7's in there. I doubt I will need help setting up the Blade 2 in my Livingroom, but that security blanket exists for me. He does an incredible job.

Search on A'gon if interested. I wrote a lot of my experience using the Convolution filter of ROON that was created by Mitch for my room and speakers.

I have had the original Blade One and now the Blade One Meta. The METAs are not broken in yet but are a great improvement in treble extension which is an acid test. I have not put the factory spikes on the METAs because I'm waiting for the GAIA footers with the carpet spike option. I'll post further when this has been done and the METAs are broken in. 

John Hirsch

Thanks for all your comments. John Hirsch; thank you and we look forward to your further comments about midrange improvements, etc with your new Blade Metas.

Enjoy!