Kef Blade listening event
breal74
Posts: 324
Last Saturday my favorite local shop, Echo Audio, had a special listening session featuring the Kef Blade, Chord SPM1400MkII mono amps, a Chord CPA 5000 Reference preamp, Auralic Vega DAC with a Mac computer with jriver and Transparent cables. It was a well attended event that was catered and had a bar, which I thought was a very nice touch and nicely done by Echo Audio.
As far as the sound, I just don't think it was my cup of tea. It was more of a wall of sound and less holographic than I like. One track that stood out to me was Royals by Lorde. My wife and daughter like the song so I am fairly familiar with it. It seemed like parts of the recording were muted, especially in the midrange, and very little detail was coming through which was disappointing. The Blades did do exceptionally well on female vocals and the tracks they played by London Grammar sounded outstanding.
All in all I would rate the system as a whole a B. It was just a tad too laid back for my tastes. I will say that it was great to talk to the company reps and fellow audiophiles and my 7 year old daughter had a great time also!
As far as the sound, I just don't think it was my cup of tea. It was more of a wall of sound and less holographic than I like. One track that stood out to me was Royals by Lorde. My wife and daughter like the song so I am fairly familiar with it. It seemed like parts of the recording were muted, especially in the midrange, and very little detail was coming through which was disappointing. The Blades did do exceptionally well on female vocals and the tracks they played by London Grammar sounded outstanding.
All in all I would rate the system as a whole a B. It was just a tad too laid back for my tastes. I will say that it was great to talk to the company reps and fellow audiophiles and my 7 year old daughter had a great time also!
Comments
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Thanks for posting your impressions.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Any photos for us to ooogle @? Thanks for the review. Peace. DMIT Magnum MH-750, Monster HTS 5100MKII, Sony 77" Class - A80CJ Series - 4K UHD OLED,PS4, Def Tech 15” sub,LSIM 706c, Sunfire Signature Grand 425 x 4,Parasound hca 120, LSiM 702 x 4, Oppo 103D, SDA SRS 1.2, Pioneer Elite SC63 , Pioneer Elite BDP-05 “Why did you get married if you wanted big speakers?”
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I wanted to be there but my school was holding it auction and attendance was crucial. I've heard the Blades paired with the monster PassLabs mono blocks and DCS Paganini. Fun stuff, though even if I had the $$ they'd never be allowed in the house.Review Site_ (((AudioPursuit)))
Founder/Publisher Affordable$$Audio 2006-13.
Former Staff Member TONEAudio
2 Ch. System
Amplifiers: Parasound Halo P6 pre, Vista Audio i34, Peachtree amp500, Adcom GFP-565 GFA-535ii, 545ii, 555ii
Digital: SimAudio HAD230 DAC, iMac 20in/Amarra,
Speakers: Paradigm Performa F75, Magnepan .7, Totem Model 1's, ACI Emerald XL, Celestion Si Stands. Totem Dreamcatcher sub
Analog: Technics SL-J2 w/Pickering 3000D, SimAudio LP5.3 phono pre
Cable/Wires: Cardas, AudioArt, Shunyata Venom 3 -
Any photos for us to ooogle @? Thanks for the review. Peace. D
Here are the only two photos I took because of the less than stellar photo quality of my phone.
