Thinking of Kef Blade 2 to replace Revel Salon 2

@david_ten Thanks that is helpful. I may listen to the future Blade system some nights very late. I have a 2 year old and music listening occurs at odd hours now. Though I am lucky that I work from home.

@ricred1 Thanks for the feedback. I am going to assume the T+A sound great with the Blades based on Audiotroy’s feedback here. In fact if I go with the T+A 3100 and the matching T+A media player I want to give Audiotroy a call about buying them. I heard the T+A 3100 at a show driving Wilsons in a very good room. It sounded great at the loud volume it was being played at..

i will hear the Blades soon with the Luxman C900/m900 combo. I was thinking this would be a good combo for the Blades for years now. However, after reading Whitecross’s A’Gon thread I am not so sure. I know he loves this combo but the things he raves about may not be correct for me and the Blades. A long listen should clear things up for me.

The other Integrated I will consider with the Blades is the forth coming Hegel H590. It is being demoed with the Blades in Europe and has gotten high praise. It is a cheaper alternative to the other 2 choices.

I am also going to audition the Blades with something a little out of left field. I have a Benchmark AHB2 amp. I will get a second loaner AHB2 and try them in mono with the Blades. I will also buy the new Benchmark analog volume control built specifically for the AHB2. I use the AHB2 in the office system.

@ejlif I hope you don’t mid me asking and commenting like this on your thread but since I am talking about the Blades I figured it was OK.

@yyzsantabarbara   We have similar circumstances. I have a four year old and my downtime for listening (in peace) is late at night. : )

Right now I'm listening at an average SPL of 51dB which is soft conversation level and the music is very enjoyable and fully rendered.

I auditioned the T+A PA 3100 HV for six weeks in home against a number of amplifiers. I've had my new unit in system for six weeks now.  I'll be posting a full review once I am totally comfortable with it in my system. 

It is definitely worth your consideration. Audiotroy's descriptions of this integrated amp are consistent with my findings.

David_Ten and YYzsantabarbarbara, yes the T+A gear does sound fantastic on the Blades, we have yet to find a speaker that the T+A gear doesn't sound suberb on.

The T+A gear is very natural sounding, with good top to bottom performance, the top end is detailed with a warm liquid midrange, the bass is a bit on the slightly warm side, and the dyanmics are excellent. Gear throws a huge soundstage. 

Couple that with a non exisitant noise floor, reasonable price point, superb construction and a great feature set and you can see why we endorse the line. We had the older C 800 Luxman preamp which we tested vs some of the other preamps we had and it was not better than the CJ GAT and a few others. it was nice and the construction was good but did not sound as magical as the T+A gear. 

We haven't tested the lastest Luxman but our findings with their last series of products including the 20 watt Class A integrated the gear was excellent but was still bettered by a few of our other brands vs the T+A gear which we haven't found yet another brand that we have tested against which was better that wasn't 3 times the price.

We tested the T+A HV power amp  and the power supply vs a $90k set of Boulder amps, and the Boulder mono blocks were a bit better in clarity and soundstaging the T+A was better in the bass, and this was an unfair comparision, of  a $32K stereo amp not T+A best setup vs a set of MONO amps, we can only imagine the difference running a set of the T+A amps in mono. 

We won't say that the T+A gear is the best on the planet, but when you look at all the products do well, for the price and the sound quality you can see why we endorse the line so highly. 

For the record we tested against, CJ ART/GAT a tube setup,  the Thrax Sparticus and Mono amps, the Boulder a $90k set of amps, the Krell MRA $125k flagship Krell amps, Devialet D 400  Monos, Electrocompaniet, and Chord Monoblocks and preamp combo.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Is there a significant difference between the Blades and Blade 2s in a room that is 20' x 26'. Does the Blades sound better and/or require a subwoofer? 

The two speakers sound very similar, the Blade 1 is the bigger of the two and has a bigger overall image and more deep bass. 

Image wise the larger Blade is going to sound more like the big image you get from the Monitors Audio. 

Our demo room is exactly 26 long 20 wide with a 10 foot celing the Blades sound fantastic in that room. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Kef Blade Dealer