KEF Blade

Ultimate loudspeakers are like supercars. Surrounded by hype, often times with massively inflated price tags, and a cult-like but always small following, given their punitive prices. In the rarefied air of candidates for best loudspeaker – and there are no doubt dozens of those, including some rather exotic off-brands where their principal basis for a claim to greatness is a mid five-figure to mid six-figure price tag, the KEF Blades are a veritable bargain at $32k.

Ever since I was a kid I've loved music, and since my late teen years, have craved loudspeakers that may at least make some legitimate claim towards being the best available transducer. And make no mistake about it, it's the signal chain transducers that make the biggest contribution the sound quality, including of course the quality of the microphones used by the studio, and the skill of the sound technicians in setting them up – a key variable over which even the most obsessive audiophile has no control. It's been long appreciated that phono cartridges and loudspeakers – as signal transducers changing a signal from electrical to acoustic/physical or from physical to electrical – make the most significant contribution to your sound system and the perceived qualities of its acoustics. In my teens I lusted after the Walsh A – a unique speaker that required 250W to play at a reasonable level and 260W to blow its voice coil. Fast forward to 50 years later and now semi-retired, I decided that after the briefest of auditions, the KEF Blades were on my bucket list, while the Ferrari, and a number of other pieces of wishful thinking were simply not happening.

A pair of these became available on Audiogon for a very reasonable money from a very responsible seller. They were local pickup only, and in some God-given bit of good luck, the seller was within an hour. They were not an easy speaker to move, as the boxes are almost 6 feet tall, and weigh about 150 pounds each loaded. But with my wife's considerable help I was able to move these massive columns into the house and set them up without a scratch . . . Except to the wood floors. Oh well.

They are simply the best speaker I've ever heard – creating a seamless and broad sound field, smoothly integrated, and with no emphasis to any part of the spectral balance or recorded acoustic. Highs are extended but not hyped, lows are all there, but again not any version of boomy, not hyped or exaggerated and the mid range is also spot on. You will invariably notice new musical nuances in your favorite musical conpositions that you've never heard before. The Blades are simply clean and neutral in a way you have to hear to appreciate, with superb transient response. Take a close look at the Stereophile review of their little brother, the Blade IIs – and JA’s measurements section (the best technical reviewer in the industry) shows about as flat a frequency response curve as you’ll find anywhere. Coming from a set of Reference 107s, the bass may not hit you in the face (or abdomen!) as much, but it extends just as deeply, down to 20-25 Hz without any trouble. And because of placement of the force-canceling pairs of 9 inch woofers well off the floor, there is not as much boundary reinforcement as many large speakers, although of course in anything except an absolutely huge listening hall, you're going to get some of that. The bass is just . . . well for lack of a better term . . . fully believable, authentic, and such that listening to other large speakers that you once thought had great bass leaves you subtlety dissatisfied once you’ve experienced the Blades.

If you can afford them, they are easily finalists for the best loudspeaker ever made, with KEF engineering frankly being more advanced than just about anyone’s, and resulting in a single apparent point source for sound, centered on the integrated tweeter-midrange driver. And if something costing this much can be considered a great value, they are shockingly less than some other ‘ultimate louspeakers’ while putting most of them to shame. Compared to the well reviewed other elite speakers over five figures, such as the big B&W 802s, the Revel Salon IIs, the Magico S5, the Vandersteen Model Seven Mk.II, or any of the Wilson Audio speakers, a few of these are less than the Blades, but many are more, and none have quite the seamless quality of the Blades. Audition one with some of your favorite material, but be prepared to be dissatisfied with what you are listening to currently.