KEF Blade 2 Meta review by Erin's Audio Corner

[slaweks]

Maybe you want a smoking gun for evidence. I see enough circumstantial evidence to support his detractors. You must think he bought a Klippel and publishes on Youtube because he is a public charity.

Yes, for serious allegations you should have smoking gun, not circumstantial evidence.

 

[amirm]

Does KEF use Klippel to measure their own speakers ?

No. They have anechoic chamber.

 

[mglobe]

It’s good when people bring well thought out perspectives that differ from the mainstream. For folks who only bring negativity and/or accusations backed by nothing but insinuation, we have the ignore button.

 

[Rotiv]

So the Blade One's not only cost more, but measure less linearly and have lower bass extension. Well they have 1dB more maximimum SPL. I would definitely save the extra $7k

Four 6.5" vs four 9" woofers. I think, to spend that kind of money i would go to the bigger One.

 

[thewas]

Four 6.5" vs four 9" woofers. I think, to spend that kind of money i would go to the bigger One.

Keep in mind though that the directivity of the Two is smoother as I had shown here, everything is a compromise.

 

[Rotiv]

Keep in mind though that the directivity of the Two is smoother as I had shown here, everything is a compromise.

I think i could live with that

 

[thewas]

I think i could live with that

I think most (including me) could happily live with either , my personal preference would be the Two and I also think it is not a coincidence that KEF sent those to Erin and Kal also got them instead of the Ones.

 

[Rotiv]

I think most (including me) could happily live with either , my personal preference would be the Two and I also think it is not a coincidence that KEF sent those to Erin and Kal also got them instead of the Ones.

Well, the price difference is 9k and 22 kg more, i belive the price of the 2 is on target with most audience, after the margin for discount the dealers can offer on 26k speakers.

 

[AudioJester]

Maybe Erin's reviews should be in the "desparate dealers" section.
Anything goes there, even just threads linking to external "money making" blogs

Eg. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-compared-to-eversolo-dmp-a-6-‘master’.50124/

Whats the difference? Its not even Erin posting the reviews here, but some very senior members. More to share the measurements than any other motive, at least in my view seing their other contributions. Isnt it exciting to see more properly collected speaker measurements?

When i donated to Erin's Klippel cause he was posting written reviews here, there was no youtube channel at that stage. How things rapidly changed!

 

[restorer-john]

I find it also weird that reposting reviews from someone which transparently gives data and shows his income path from the affiliate links is not welcome by some, on the other hand audio companies and dealers are allowed not only to post outside of the "Desperate Dealers" section but even in threads of products of their competitors.

They (dealers) get pulled up over that type of behaviour regularly. It's not a good look when they do, and most people understand that.

As for the regular "Breaking News : Erin has done another review and you'll see it first here" threads, I think they are bad form. It's drives traffic offsite deliberately to someone else's Youtube channel and you know it.

 

[thewas]

They (dealers) get pulled up over that type of behaviour regularly. It's not a good look when they do, and most people understand that.

But it still happens regularly and for me its a different level of "offence".

As for the regular "Breaking News : Erin has done another review and you'll see it first here" threads, I think they are bad form. It's drives traffic offsite deliberately to someone else's Youtube channel and you know it.

I cannot talk for others but I always post the most important measurements directly here and as soon as the written review is online also a link to it, so people don't have to watch the video if they don't want to and you know it.

 

[amper42]

The problem is @thewas is either acting as Erin's agent by regularly posting Erin's reviews on ASR or he is doing it without Erin's written consent. It's one thing to post a link but when you post another persons article including text and graphics without permission it violates their copyright and infringes on their intellectual property rights. If @thewas is acting as Erin's agent then he is treating ASR as a satellite of Erin's Audio Corner. I would think that would require permission from ASR and rules developed for the relationship boundaries. Plus, ASR might require written assurances that the republishing is done with permission of the author.

If @thewas is posting articles without permission it could easily be considered copyright infringement. I understand people like to think there are no boundaries on the web, but copyrights and bandwidth costs are real.

 

[mj30250]

Good grief, this is reaching parody levels now.

Could a mod kindly relocate this topic to its own thread? At this point, anyone actually seeking out helpful discussion regarding the speaker in question is going walk away rather stupefied.

 

[zgmf_x10a]

It would be one thing if he's just saying this is one of the best speakers without evidences to back it up and you're just supposed to take his words for it but that is not the case here. All the measurements so far point out to this being among the very best to have been put on a Klippel nearfield scanner. If you find it unwarranted please point out where in the graphs do you find objectionable.

 

[thewas]

The problem is @thewas is either acting as Erin's agent by regularly posting Erin's reviews on ASR or he is doing it without Erin's written consent. It's one thing to post a link but when you post another persons article including text and graphics without permission it violates their copyright and infringes on their intellectual property rights. If @thewas is acting as Erin's agent then he is treating ASR as a satellite of Erin's Audio Corner. I would think that would require permission from ASR and rules developed for the relationship boundaries. Plus, ASR might require written assurances that the republishing is done with permission of the author.

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.

 

[MacClintock]

Four 6.5" vs four 9" woofers. I think, to spend that kind of money i would go to the bigger One.

But what would be the benefit if the bass extension is not even improved?

 

[Keith_W]

The problem is @thewas is either acting as Erin's agent by regularly posting Erin's reviews on ASR or he is doing it without Erin's written consent.

Have you considered a third possibility? That he is posting because we might find it interesting and get something of value out of it? You jumped into conspiracy theory mode and accused a respected ASR member of being underhanded. There is no need for that. Seriously guys, let's play the ball and not the man. Attacking people instead of their arguments is a logical fallacy, and is out of place in a site where objectivity is valued. It's ugly and this kind of fighting is embarrassing to all of us as a community.

Now let's get back to the speaker. If I go ahead and order a pair, I am thinking of doing some modifications - (1) bypass the internal crossover and make it active and DSP controlled, and (2) plug the ports because they complicate DSP correction. It looks as if the passive XO board is buried deep within the guts of the speaker. The video posted by @Descartes here shows a partially assembled Blade, it appears as if the crossover is accessed by turning the speaker on its side and removing the plinth.

As for plugging the ports, it could be as simple as an old rolled up tea towel. But I hear that the Blades ship with port plugs. Can any Blade owners confirm / deny this please?

 

[restorer-john]

I cannot talk for others but I always post the most important measurements directly here and as soon as the written review is online also a link to it

Others don't do it "always" because it's kind of like repeatedly going to someone's house for dinner and telling the other guests how much better the food is at someone else's place. Regular, full cut and pastes of content and youtube links to another reviewer is going too far.

Amir is way too nice of a host. I would have kicked me out a few times, but he didn't. I certainly wouldn't put up with what we are discussing right now.

I don't believe you have any valid reason to "always" post Erin's latest scoop review here on ASR going forward, unless you are going to also post every other reviewer's latest reviews, complete with cut and pastes, video links and attributions.

 

[zgmf_x10a]

But what would be the benefit if the bass extension is not even improved?

The Blade 1 Meta has 2 db more sensitivity which implies to me they are more efficient and have more output down low. Remember the CEA-2010 specs ask for output@distortions instead of who goes lower on a graph.

I don't believe you have any valid reason to "always" post Erin's latest scoop review here on ASR going forward, unless you are going to also post every other reviewer's latest reviews, complete with cut and pastes, video links and attributions.

Maybe because every other reviewers don't provide high resolution objective measurements which are a focus of this site? Measurements are measurements no matter where they came from.

 

[thewas]

I don't believe you have any valid reason to "always" post Erin's latest scoop review here on ASR going forward, unless you are going to also post every other reviewer's latest reviews, complete with cut and pastes, video links and attributions.

Show me any other loudspeaker reviews (which as you probably know by now is my main field of interest and interaction here) with the analysis quality, depth and interesting models like currently EAC has and I have absolutely no problem to post those instead. Unfortunately I have not find any other so I am posting many of Erins.

By the way I have in done in the past similar also for other decent reviews, unfortunately such have become rare, exemplary:

Technics SL-1210 Mk7 & SL-1210 Mk2 measurement comparison

http://avmentor.gr/reviews/2022/technics_sl_1210_mk7_mk2_2.htm (article is in Greek language so better use google translate or similar) Interesting how the over 40 year old original still measures mainly slightly better, some legendary engineering behind.

www.audiosciencereview.com

Monoprice Monolith Encore T6 Tower Loudspeaker review & measurements by Audioholics

Source and more: https://www.audioholics.com/tower-speaker-reviews/monoprice-monolith-encore-t6 Decent directivities, especially considering its price.

www.audiosciencereview.com

Quested S8R 2-way studio monitor measurements by Sound & Recording

Profile Quested S8R - Rosewood Edition Frequency range: 34 Hz - 22 kHz (-6 dB) Ripple: 7.9 dB (100 Hz - 10 kHz) Hor. aperture angle: 120 degrees (-6 dB Iso 1 kHz - 10 kHz) Ver. aperture angle: 120 degrees (-6 dB Iso 1 kHz - 10 kHz) Max. useful volume: 107 dB (3 % THD 100 Hz - 10 kHz) Bass...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Sound & Recording review and measurements of the HEDD Type 30 MK2

Source: https://www.soundandrecording.de/equipment/hedd-type-30-mk2-3-wege-midfield-monitor-im-test/ Electronic translation of the text: 01 Individual frequency responses of the three paths. LF ported (red) and closed (purple), MF (green) and HF (blue). The AMT tweeter is driven by a 15...

www.audiosciencereview.com