• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

KEF Blade Two Meta Review

Hi there, I thought it might be helpful to add a bit of context regarding my measurement setup.
I don’t have access to an anechoic chamber or a system like Klippel NFS, so my low-frequency measurements are inevitably affected by room modes and various reflections.

To address this, I provide two types of supplementary THD plots in my reviews:

CHD – This is calculated as the percentage of THD based on the average SPL between 200 Hz and 10 kHz.

EHID – This method normalizes the transfer function of the speaker, microphone, and room to calculate THD%. It can produce quite accurate results as long as the speaker doesn’t begin rolling off within the measured band. If there is roll-off, however, the data can be inflated. That’s why I provide different frequency ranges depending on the speaker’s response.

This approach is based on one of the measurement methods outlined in IEC 60268.
Thank you, @Nuyes.

So it seems staticV3 was right and my assumption wrong. Is it the case that the input voltage to the speaker is maintained constant across each distortion sweep?

Thanks for the technical info on CHD and EHID. I spent some time yesterday guessing their meanings but it's better to be told than to guess.
 
My favourite speakers by far. I've heard them multiple times, and I'm always blown away by their performance.
Sadly, they're out of reach financially.
Still, I'm glad to see that what I'm hearing is backed up by measurements.
Thanks for the work @Nuyes
 
Am I the only one who doesn't like the appearance of them?

The sub-three ohm loading may not be such an issue these days and THIS is why amps with pretensions to 'high end' must in my opinion, be tested thoroughly into two ohm loads

Also, how stable are they? Surely some of the no doubt wealthy owners of these things have grandkids or boisterous dogs flying around?
The looks would hold me back, even if I could justify the cost, and I have to say that they look top-heavy with a small base (yes, base, not bass!).

In any case, I'll be going active when/if I ever get another pair of speakers.
 
How much would you be sacrificing if you get a 8361 or KH420 instead of Blades?
Because price difference is not small also no need for amps.

For some users, the compromise is aesthetics
 
How much would you be sacrificing if you get a 8361 or KH420 instead of Blades?
Because price difference is not small also no need for amps.
It's not just the cost of the amp(s), although it needn't be great with Hypex or Purifi-based units: there's also the lack of clutter with amps inside the speakers.
 
Hi there, I thought it might be helpful to add a bit of context regarding my measurement setup.
I don’t have access to an anechoic chamber or a system like Klippel NFS, so my low-frequency measurements are inevitably affected by room modes and various reflections.

To address this, I provide two types of supplementary THD plots in my reviews:

CHD – This is calculated as the percentage of THD based on the average SPL between 200 Hz and 10 kHz.

EHID – This method normalizes the transfer function of the speaker, microphone, and room to calculate THD%. It can produce quite accurate results as long as the speaker doesn’t begin rolling off within the measured band. If there is roll-off, however, the data can be inflated. That’s why I provide different frequency ranges depending on the speaker’s response.

This approach is based on one of the measurement methods outlined in IEC 60268.
I actually suggest that, similar to what Amir does, you should add a section at the start of every one of your speaker reviews, that explains your test setup in some detail, including the above limitations and also some commentary on where an anechoic chamber or NFS measurement might differ from yours.

The FR plot actually looks considerably smoothed.

Subject to further discussion, I certainly don't think readers should be comparing speakers where one set of measurements is yours and the other is Amir's.

cheers
 
The Blades are always my taste of design+SQ. Just too big and expensive
 
Great review, great speaker. I will stick with the Ones, though.
 
Funny I was just researching this speaker. Two professional reviewers I like both said it is the best speaker they have ever reviewed. Hard to find a store that carries them for a listen though. I started to look for a used pair however a lot of them are really beat up, dented drivers etc. I always think of audiophiles as a fairly meticulous lot including myself, so it is always surprising to see such high end equipment being abused.
 
Last edited:
I've seen them in person too, and although they wouldn't fit in aesthetically in my living room, I think they looked pretty good. And sounded very good.

I also think it's funny that even with one of the best passive speakers available, people still find things to criticise with the measurements and performance. :)
 
Subject to further discussion, I certainly don't think readers should be comparing speakers where one set of measurements is yours and the other is Amir's.

Since the veracity of the measurements has been called into question, let's compare @Nuyes measurements with Erin's. It is not my intention to criticize Erin or Nuyes, I am only comparing the two measurement sets to see how similar/different they are.


1754323335533.png


On axis FR: Using an image editing program, I copy-pasted Nuyes' measurements on Erin's and adjusted the graph to the same scale. Black = Erin, green = Nuyes. Nuyes' measurements have too much smoothing. Above about 1kHz, the two measurements are quite comparable, including the small dip at about 1.5kHz and the treble roll-off at about 16kHz. Below 200Hz, Nuyes' measurements are more lumpy, probably indicating limitations of his measurement setup. But it does capture the roll-off below 25Hz, although it appears to roll-off a bit earlier with Nuyes.

1754323948390.png
1754323965722.png


Horizontal Contour Plot, Erin (left) vs Nuyes (right). Both are using the same colour scale where one colour transition equals -3dB, but the difference is that Nuyes did not normalize his plot to 0dB so the contour plots are not strictly comparable. Regardless, with an eye of faith you can see that they are about the same.

1754324251602.png
1754324161932.png


Polar Plot, Erin (left) vs. Nuyes (right). I took the liberty of flipping Erin's plot upside down for easier comparison. The difference is that Nuyes chose to normalize the plot to the same SPL so we can compare the directivity at different frequencies. Erin did not. So even though the two graphs are not directly comparable, it is remarkable how similar they look.

1754324596616.png
1754324567240.png


Compression test, Erin (left) vs. Nuyes (right). Erin does his test down to 40Hz, Nuyes stops at 100Hz. Both tests use the conventional +/-3dB vertical scale. Erin starts his test at 86dB, Nuyes starts his test at 76dB. The results are dramatically different. Erin tested to a louder volume (102dB) than Nuyes (96dB), yet his results show remarkable linearity. Nuyes shows +/-1dB on the same test. Nuyes' results are also really jagged with a lot of tweeter distortion, despite testing at a lower SPL than Erin.

So: either Erin was measuring at a lower SPL than indicated, or Nuyes was testing at a higher SPL than indicated. Either that, or there is something wrong with Nuyes' sample.

1754325275967.png
1754325289225.png


Impedance vs. Frequency, Erin (left) vs Nuyes (right). There is nothing to see here except different vertical scales.

IMO the two sets of measurements are very much in agreement with the exception of the compression test.
 
Erin measured a compression of almost zero. Where does the difference come from? Room noise/measurement errors?
 
So the cabinet is basically fiberglass? View attachment 467729
Looks more like injection-molded, glass-reinforced plastic to me:

Fiberglass composite wouldn't look nearly as homogenous cut in half, also that wall thickness would be highly unusual.
 
Back
Top Bottom