KEF Blade 2 Meta review by Erin's Audio Corner

[Sancus]

Erin mentioned in comments that his friend has the Genelec setup and he has heard them a lot. He finds Blade 2 better than That Genelec speaker + sub combo.

What he actually said(in reply to you on YouTube), for those who care about subjective opinions:

to me, the KEF image better. Everything sounds like it is actually coming from the same point in space. Noticeably, the bass sounds right there with all the other instruments. It’s an experience I’ve never heard with any other speaker capable of this kind of output across the entire spectrum.

Of course; this is all sighted. But if I’m paying $30k and the data shows two really good options, I’m going to go with the one that I prefer, sighted.

Personally, knowing the reliability of my own auditory memory and just how often I've been surprised when actually doing a proper A/B test with sub-1s switches, I will seriously never understand how people can convince themselves that this sort of stuff has any value.

[Unrelated]

Regarding Erin/Youtube... do people think that buying a Klippel and producing YouTube videos is gonna make him rich or something? A YouTuber with <100K subs makes enough to buy himself lunch once in a while, not anything that can replace a good day job. Certainly not even REMOTELY good money for someone who can afford the Klippel in the first place. It's an expensive hobby, not a business.

If my goal was "become a popular influencer" buying >100K of audio testing gear would be at least a few thousand items down the list of sane options lol.

 

[al2002]

In one of his live streams, Erin stated that he makes, perhaps, $50 on a good video. As far as I can tell, his YouTube channel is a labour of love. Given the service he provides to serious audiophiles, I find it astonishing that he is criticised over minor matters.

He does ask viewers to use his Amazon links to help support his channel; I have absolutely no problems with that.

AFAIAC, Anyone who spends a 6 figure sum out of his own pocket to support the hobby fully deserves our R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Needless to say, that goes double for our gracious host, Amir, who started the non commercial measurement trend in the current Hi Fi era.

 

[al2002]

P.S:- compare the viewership of Erin’s channel to that of Steve Gutenberg’s. Which one do you think is more informative and which one do you think is more successful financially? Hint: Gutenberg gave up his full-time job at CNET.

 

[MattHooper]

He does ask viewers to use his Amazon links to help support his channel; I have absolutely no problems with that.

Yup. And Amir takes donations for this forum too. And I have no problem with that either.

 

[amirm]

From Erin:
"to me, the KEF image better. Everything sounds like it is actually coming from the same point in space. Noticeably, the bass sounds right there with all the other instruments. It’s an experience I’ve never heard with any other speaker capable of this kind of output across the entire spectrum."

This is all optical/sighted bias in my opinion and something I consistently hear from pure subjectivist reviewers. I have listened to tons of coaxial speakers. I have never experienced such a thing, nor would I think it is a good thing if it were there. Bass is omni directional so any statement about it in that regard is not correct.

Sure, if you have narrow dispersion, you get a more focused soundstage. But that comes at the expense of spatial expansion that wider dispersion that Erin has repeatedly said he prefers.

Real, live music never has such precision anyway. Instruments are in different locations and the overall experience in any large presentation space is dominated by reflections so it is diffused. Indeed, not having it diffused would be a bad thing as your brain notices this instrument is there, and another one in a different place than experiencing a holistic presentation.

When I listened to the R11 Meta and closed my eyes, I could tell it had a localized sound source in that the spatial qualities were limited. That is all that you can objectively say about the design of the speaker. Or the fact that its reflections are more balanced both vertically and horizontally.

 

[amirm]

Yup. And Amir takes donations for this forum too. And I have no problem with that either.

That's not the same thing. You are not motivated to say something sounds good as to have people buy it and earn more commissions. When I polled membership a few years ago on adding sponsorship links to Amazon for example, the reaction was almost universally negative and some incredibly so.

I recently had a huge (#1?) retailer of pro audio gear approach me to lend me anything in their inventory for review in exchange for sponsored links. I told them I did not have sponsorships but would be happy to do the reviews without them paying any commission to me. They immediately said no! I asked why and they explained that sponsored links are their way of tracking the usefulness of this program to their business. In other words, if enough people don't follow the sponsored links, they cut you out. Even though it would have been amazing to have access to their huge list of gear to test, I was not willing to compromise this way.

 

[al2002]

Yup. And Amir takes donations for this forum too. And I have no problem with that either.

Agree 100%

 

[dfuller]

This is all optical/sighted bias in my opinion and something I consistently hear from pure subjectivist reviewers.

Adding the second part of the statement here:

Of course; this is all sighted. But if I’m paying $30k and the data shows two really good options, I’m going to go with the one that I prefer, sighted.

He's literally acknowledging that it's sighted. I genuinely do not understand what you want from him here.

 

[Ron Texas]

Yup. And Amir takes donations for this forum too. And I have no problem with that either.

Maybe I should take donations. I can promise the most anyone will ever get in return are my comments. Zell to [redacted]

 

[Blumlein 88]

That's not the same thing. You are not motivated to say something sounds good as to have people buy it and earn more commissions. When I polled membership a few years ago on adding sponsorship links to Amazon for example, the reaction was almost universally negative and some incredibly so.

I recently had a huge (#1?) retailer of pro audio gear approach me to lend me anything in their inventory for review in exchange for sponsored links. I told them I did not have sponsorships but would be happy to do the reviews without them paying any commission to me. They immediately said no! I asked why and they explained that sponsored links are their way of tracking the usefulness of this program to their business. In other words, if enough people don't follow the sponsored links, they cut you out. Even though it would have been amazing to have access to their huge list of gear to test, I was not willing to compromise this way.

Thank you for taking this approach. A thousand times thank you!

 

[hmt]

Adding the second part of the statement here:

He's literally acknowledging that it's sighted. I genuinely do not understand what you want from him here.

Nothing. This is just a pissing contest instead of working together. Amir and Erin share the same goal. This race for purity is just out of place.

 

[prestigetone]

Adding the second part of the statement here:

He's literally acknowledging that it's sighted. I genuinely do not understand what you want from him here.

He is citing his bias at every turn. It’s refreshing to me to get both sides of the decision equation. Bias is inherent. The our brains aren’t computers which is why AI can do things we can and vice versa

 

[Mr. Widget]

Even though it would have been amazing to have access to their huge list of gear to test, I was not willing to compromise this way.

Thank you!

 

[amirm]

In one of his live streams, Erin stated that he makes, perhaps, $50 on a good video. As far as I can tell, his YouTube channel is a labour of love. Given the service he provides to serious audiophiles, I find it astonishing that he is criticised over minor matters.

There is no question that his ultimate aim is to quit his day job and do this full time: it is all apparent in his actions and style of what is produced. If he wanted to serve our community, the first part of the video would be about the measurements and then finish with a bit of subjectivism at the end. What we have is the reverse of that to win as many eyeballs as possible. This, you don't do for "labor of love."

Value what he does excellently (measurements) but please don't defend what is not defensible or valuable.

He does ask viewers to use his Amazon links to help support his channel; I have absolutely no problems with that.

AFAIAC, Anyone who spends a 6 figure sum out of his own pocket to support the hobby fully deserves our R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

It is not to support a hobby. It is an investment in doing what he loves to do: make a living doing what he is doing now. I personally think it is a bad investment but it is the niche he has found.

Here is a question for you: let's say the Blade 2 speaker had problems. What are the odds that he would do such a review and say those bad things about it? And not do a JA and spin any objective measurements as not being so bad?

Let's remember again as I noted and he acknowledges in the video that these speakers have narrow dispersion. And that he has consistently said he likes wide dispersion. How did he turn on a dime and decide otherwise in this case?

 

[amirm]

I won't even bother to comment about that agent accusation, but for your other option. Posting parts of an free available article with links to the original source is not a problem, trust me, if it would be, Erin would have contacted me, Amir or the mods, other people do it also for example for Stereophile and other measurements and often JA just correctly asks them to put a link to the source under those as I do.

When Erin initially put copyright notices on his graphs, I had Adam specifically ask him if he is doing that to keep his content from being used here. He said not at all and so we have allowed that. We also have implied permission from stereophile to hot link to their measurements as long as a link is provided to the full review (US law allows hotlinking even without this but as a professional courtesy, I like to follow their suggestion). And keep in mind that neither I, nor the membership quotes entire set of measurements from stereophile.

Taking snapshots of his video though, is not covered by above. While some amount of this is covered by fair use, extracting every measurement he has and posting it here, may not be so. I highly suggest you get written permission from Erin for doing this. You are taking away views from his video this way and he may not be OK with it. When you have that permission, share that with me and moderators. Otherwise, I highly suggest you limit your quoting to minimum needed to convey a point in the review. Doing otherwise may subject you to sanctions as stated in our terms of service: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?help/terms/

 

[amirm]

Definitely not an accident, the truth is that not that I am interested to share interesting loudspeaker measurements instead of some inaudible little 100+ SINAD boxes which get an "update" every 6 months or loudspeakers that are long discontinued and didn't even interest anyone when they were sold, but that I am getting money from Erin so we both can get heavily discounted Blades from KEF because of the shill advertisement we both do for them.

Let me guess: you are the type that goes to a party, tells the host he didn't like the food at the end after eating a ton of it, and urinates on the way out on the lawn.

I have reviewed over 250 speakers. That meant nothing to you? You have had no interest in all those studio monitors? Why do you think there are so many knowledgeable members here to interact with? They are here because of totality of what I do including reviews of every product category and discussion of audio science and engineering.

And you say this after I just got down reviewing two speakers? Another KEF and an Ascend? That didn't interest you either and we are supposed to give you a thumbs up for demanding I test what you want to see?

If all you want to see is speaker reviews that Erin does, go and watch his reviews and don't participate here. You must have a very different upbringing than I have to say such things. Just incredible.

 

[amirm]

He's literally acknowledging that it's sighted. I genuinely do not understand what you want from him here.

So? We know that about Darko videos. That makes everything he says OK after that? A disclaimer that is not valued by the presenter himself is of no value. He is pleading with you to believe what he says subjectively.

No video that starts with 19 minutes or whatever it is for the subjective part is respecting science of speaker evaluation. Being sighted is actually the smaller problem. The larger problem is lack of comparison to other speakers. Research says you need to compare minimum of 4 speakers and more would be better. Only then you can find out unique issues with a speakers as others do not suffer the same problem. Listening to one speaker and opining is just talking without much value over any other subjectivist reviewer.

Remember we don't know what the sound should be on any recording. For all you know, the thing that sounded great to you is actually wrong. The above technique or my approximation with EQ, are the only methods where you can with straight face say something about speaker fidelity.

 

[cavedriver]

There is no question that his ultimate aim is to quit his day job and do this full time: it is all apparent in his actions and style of what is produced. If he wanted to serve our community, the first part of the video would be about the measurements and then finish with a bit of subjectivism at the end. What we have is the reverse of that to win as many eyeballs as possible. This, you don't do for "labor of love."

Value what he does excellently (measurements) but please don't defend what is not defensible or valuable.

Amir, I don't think the issue is that people are saying that Erin's subjective content is valuable (well, I'm certainly not). The problem is that people are attacking his integrity. The not at all subtle attack here is that because people *have assumed without direct evidence* that he is trying to make a career of measuring and reviewing speakers that his measurements are therefore not credible. This is offensive and I think it demeans the data-focused nature of ASR. It would not be much different if people accused you of using ASR as a sales and marketing tool for your actual day job of owning Madrona Digital, a company that could actually benefit financially from the testing and expertise that you practice on ASR. So I would ask that please at least moderate the forums to a "do no harm" standard since I do believe that both yourself and Erin demonstrate integrity with regards to the measurements, setting aside all subjective observations.

 

[amirm]

Amir, I don't think the issue is that people are saying that Erin's subjective content is valuable (well, I'm certainly not). The problem is that people are attacking his integrity. The not at all subtle attack here is that because people *have assumed without direct evidence* that he is trying to make a career of measuring and reviewing speakers that his measurements are therefore not credible.

It is not an attack to observe that having commercial links to products, monetizing channel, etc. above and beyond donations lends to doubt that he is doing this for good of man kind. And that when he gets a $30,000 speaker on loan, there is a reason to be on guard and not believe everything he says subjectively.

It would not be much different if people accused you of using ASR as a sales and marketing tool for your actual day job of owning Madrona Digital, a company that could actually benefit financially from the testing and expertise that you practice on ASR.

You see a strong disclaimer when anything related to business of Madrona overlaps that of ASR in my reviews. I don't ever put a link to buy anything from Madrona. Nor advertise for the company here. I also show that I am unbiased in this regard by giving very negative and scathing reviews of some products we could carry. Finally, Madrona is not a retail business. Has no inventory and is not in the business of hi-fi selling. This leaves people still enough to complain here and elsewhere and I address it.

You never see such disclaims in Erin's videos. Heck, you don't even know where the product came from. Same as any other youtuber. Whereas the first line in every review of mine is where the product came from.

So I would ask that please at least moderate the forums to a "do no harm" standard since I do believe that both yourself and Erin demonstrate integrity with regards to the measurements, setting aside all subjective observations.

It is insulting to me that you put me in the same boat as Erin. With a flick of a finger, I could turn on advertising on this site and make $100K+. In sharp contrast, there is not a monetization path that Erin hasn't explored and promoted, including doing so here.

Please keep in mind that there is not a single commercialized forum in the world that would allow so much promotion of his content. They would see it as direct competition to their business model and would want to have nothing to do with it. That I allow this, despite him once producing a video calling me every name in the world, should be all that I owe you all. I only have two cheeks and have already turned the other.

For those of Erin's fans who are unhappy about this, I highly suggest you make a donation to him to support his work instead of asking me to do more for him.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

It is not an attack to observe that having commercial links to products, monetizing channel, etc. above and beyond donations lends to doubt that he is doing this for good of man kind. And that when he gets a $30,000 speaker on loan, there is a reason to be on guard and not believe everything he says subjectively.


You see a strong disclaimer when anything related to business of Madrona overlaps that of ASR in my reviews. I don't ever put a link to buy anything from Madrona. Nor advertise for the company here. I also show that I am unbiased in this regard by giving very negative and scathing reviews of some products we could carry. Finally, Madrona is not a retail business. Has no inventory and is not in the business of hi-fi selling. This leaves people still enough to complain here and elsewhere and I address it.

You never see such disclaims in Erin's videos. Heck, you don't even know where the product came from. Same as any other youtuber. Whereas the first line in every review of mine is where the product came from.


It is insulting to me that you put me in the same boat as Erin. With a flick of a finger, I could turn on advertising on this site and make $100K+. In sharp contrast, there is not a monetization path that Erin hasn't explored and promoted, including doing so here.

Please keep in mind that there is not a single commercialized forum in the world that would allow so much promotion of his content. They would see it as direct competition to their business model and would want to have nothing to do with it. That I allow this, despite him once producing a video calling me every name in the world, should be all that I owe you all. I only have two cheeks and have already turned the other.

For those of Erin's fans who are unhappy about this, I highly suggestion you go and make a donation to him to support his work instead of asking me to do more for him.

I think you have to do nothing, i like asr because is a place where you can talk whatever you wish but with respect and obj.