Anyone own KEF Blades - either version? Thoughts?

It looks like that ceiling would be a challenge. The Blades are looking mighty nice though :).
 
ceiling tiles over sheetrock lasted 15 years and no longer necessary. I moved my mom in with us and am overwhelmed with stuff, but hope to have my room back by summer.
 
Dang, going without your room has to be difficult. Those Blades would be sitting there haunting me. I would at least setup a headphone listen station somewhere :).
 
I still listen solo, it's just that more of the room has been allocated to storage than I would have. When things get back to normal i'll post a better looking pic.
 
My new Blades have arrived! What a beautiful speaker and the Wife says they fit the space better than the Magnepans. Tomorrow I will play with placement and install the spikes. My next day off will be Dirac calibration day. So far, so good!
 

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> My new Blades have arrived! What a beautiful speaker and the Wife says they fit the space better than the Magnepans. Tomorrow I will play with placement and install the spikes. My next day off will be Dirac calibration day. So far, so good!

Great looking speakers. Try setting them up such that they don't need Dirac. I've used 3 room correction systems including Dirac that are built into full-range amps and have always found a slight loss of excitement factor when the Dirac, RP or MARS filter is engaged. Lots of time needed to experiment with placement, toe-in, maybe tilt, etc until you get to the position that Dirac hinders rather than helps with ultimate sound quality. That's the rewarding part of buying exceptional speakers.
 
Thanks Hear Here. That’s great advice. I will see what I can do with and without Dirac. Part of me thinks it may be time for a tube preamp. I’m considering BAT and Modwright as options.

mdp632, I’ve been riding all my life. My current bike is a Triumph Tiger 800XCx dual-sport that I really love. I have a trip planned in September to Ecuador for a guided tour where you rent the bike from them. My bike before this was a Speed Triple, and that was just intoxicating every time I rode it. There’s a long list of previous bikes before that.

I had no time to listen yesterday, so I’m excited to get home today and dive right in.
 
Great speakers. It was neck and neck for me between the Blade 2's or the Vivid Giya 3's. I loved the look of the Blades and they were my top choice(loved the narrow point source),but was concerned about my 11.5*13.5*8 room, especially after Atkinsons review. Found a great price on the Vivids, and have been thrilled. So much emotion, chills, and need to look up moments. They both blend well in smaller room with their narrow, tapered profile. Both extract the best bass performance by putting the drivers 180 degrees with back wave attenuation. The Giya's even have suspension in their stock spikes. For this reason I put off trying the Gaia feet by Isotech, what a mistake. The bass is so much delineated(Tommy Stinson has never been more vivid), deeper, and it's like a cloud of thickness over the sound was removed. Amazing. Highly recommend to try them on your blades, I feel like they may have made them work in a smaller room, they are stellar. At least your Blades won't look like penguins. Worth it for the performance.
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odds are the blade 2's would be big for your 11x13' room and imagine how conventional a pair of reference 3's would look (and sound?) in that spot. The first time I saw the G3 I thought of the alien opera singer on 'The Fifth Element'.
 
HifiHandyman said:
My new Blades have arrived! What a beautiful speaker and the Wife says they fit the space better than the Magnepans. Tomorrow I will play with placement and install the spikes. My next day off will be Dirac calibration day. So far, so good!
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Hiya, one very small thought. I had Rythmik subwoofers with my Magnepan's, maybe even the same models that are in your photos. They were wonderful subs and worked fantastic with the Maggies. However, when I got my Meta's I decided to try the small matching KEF subs, the KC62's. They are tiny so it is hard to believe how good they are. My thoughts, if you are going to continue using the subs with your Blade's it might be worth considering KEF subs, even the tiny KC62's or something larger like the KC-92's or even the Reference sub.... don't let the size fool you, the KC62's work amazing, and dare I say a ton better than the Rythmik's when syncing with KEF speakers.
 
Man, I tell you what, the Blades are just awesome. I’m running them full range with no subs and no room correction and they just sound magnificent. Great controlled bass and imaging. I’ve been playing them non stop. Placement seems to be best with no toe-in but I’m still trying very small changes. The bass goes very very deep but just shy of 20hz.
 
That is great... they look awesome! Have to admit being a bit jealous even though they would not fit my room :)... congratulations for sure!
 
I just can’t believe the quality and quantity of the bass I’m getting. It’s God-like the deep bass that’s coming out. I put my subs in storage. I am getting a clean 20hz tone no problem. It took some work, but the imaging is really great also. I remember the first time I heard a pair of Wilson Cubs and the imaging blew me away. That’s what I’m getting and my room is very far from ideal. They continue to sound better and better.
 
HifiHandyman said:
I just can’t believe the quality and quantity of the bass I’m getting. I put my subs in storage. I am getting a clean 20hz tone no problem.
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Best place for subs! Always better to have good full range floor standers in my opinion. Greart that the Blades are up to (exceeding) expectation - well done. KEF have always made good speakers, I had a pair of Reference 107/2 decides ago, another great speaker in its day.
 
I had my blades on usam on and off since the announcement of the blade meta and there is somebody coming to check them out Saturday and I just changed my mind. Does that make me a dick? In the price range I’ve heard most and for my asking price I don’t see anything out there that interests me so I think I’m set. There’s no such thing as too much power. Going from the h360 to the h590 really tightened up the presentation, another difference I wasn’t aware of until the change
 
So why havent you moved into the Metas? I just received my 802D4’s but Im keeping my open Blade Meta order.
 
There are a pair of Blades for sale near me (the bigger ones) that I'm interested in. My biggest concern is besides the price is my room big enough? My room is 16' x 25' and has sound absorption and diffusion panels in it. Thanks, John
 
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