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KEF Blade Two Meta Review

How do you get around how alien and weird they look in a room? They really don't fit the decor of most rooms and you pay $28K for that feature? The value proposition seems underwhelming when equally fantastic sound can be had for less than 35% of that amount.
The answer to these questions seems obvious to me. To the consumer who's into the audiophile aesthetics and lifestyle KEF products offer the best value for money. On performance they beat most audiophile speakers, on looks they mostly deliver as audiophile-looking at their price point, and on price they are expensive enough to be proper audiophile while undercutting a lot of the market. If you want audiophile speakers and are prepared to pay then I recommend KEF in all seriousness.

I try to distance myself from audiophile but that's just me.
 
Great review. Nice to see how top of the line stuff measures up. Hmmm how much more or less do you gain or lose by choosing the R11 meta?..
 
Great review. Nice to see how top of the line stuff measures up. Hmmm how much more or less do you gain or lose by choosing the R11 meta?..

You gain more low-end and a smoother frequency response, you lose your wife and/or children.
R11 meta + 2 subs + room treatments still leaves, I don’t know...13-14k in the bank.
 
Erin's review marries the two and it's worth checking out. I understand you though
Did I miss something in this Blade review - how do they actually sound? What other equipment were they paired with?

I know this is a measurements-biased forum, but some objective or even subjective feedback on whether these speakers delivered sounds that sounded like music, is surely what music lovers are looking for. If we are not music lovers, why do we consider luxuries such as Blade speakers? I'm confused! :confused:
 
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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.
Same data but presented using extraction, including an on-axis measurement from KEF as well. The small variations are interesting.
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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.
I would tend to agree with @sigbergaudio. Using the same technique I took the data from the peaks of MTD graph to create a rough room response, since that chart shows the most room effects, and compared it to the compression chart. There is some similarity. Maybe the culprit is that different windows are used from chart to chart in Nuyes' reviews.

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Did I miss something in this Blade review - how do they actually sound?

Yes, they do project sound.

There you go, subjective review completed
 
Erin's review shows -3db at 31hz. Nuyes shows what looks to be the FR not including the port output?
 
Great speakers, despite some noted issues. I need 6 of them, but at 85% discount and will seal the deal immediately. Black is preferred colour. PM if feasible :rolleyes:.
 
Point source vs wide dispersion.
I haven't heard a live concert yet that was Point Source based. :D
 
Point source vs wide dispersion.
I haven't heard a live concert yet that was Point Source based. :D
Well that's a false equivalence. Home audio isn't live
 
Point source vs wide dispersion.
I haven't heard a live concert yet that was Point Source based. :D

Point source doesn't sound like it ..sounds like it sounds. More like the opposite. :)
 
Point source vs wide dispersion.
I haven't heard a live concert yet that was Point Source based. :D
I would love to see how you can design a speaker that is actually concert-wide-dispersion. The world's largest Magnepans perhaps?
 
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