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KEF BLADE Floorstanding Speaker-Snow White-BLADE-WH

At a Glance

KEF BLADE Floorstanding Speaker-Snow White with single apparent source and discreet bass chambers

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BLADE, the world's first Single Apparent Source loudspeaker, is the production version of the famous Concept Blade project KEF revealed at the Munich High End Show in 2009.

Uncompromised Innovation

BLADE is an attitude. It's about exploring the art of the possible, without preconceptions. Pushing boundaries.

So we gave our most talented engineers carte blanche to create the best speaker they can, with no design or cost restrictions. After years of research and testing, what they came up with looked and sounded like no other speaker: Concept BLADE. Its startling acoustic precision was so acclaimed when it first broke cover that we spent two more years refining the concept to produce an edition that serious audiophiles could own and enjoy.

The result was so well received - and scooped so many prestigious awards to prove it - that we decided to take things even further and expand the BLADE range.

Single Apparent Source

Like listening to one voice rather than many, sound from a single source is inherently clearer. Not only are the acoustic centres of the HF and MF drivers in the Blade & Blade Two Uni-Q array coincident, but the four LF drivers, (225mm/9-in. for Blade, or 165mm/6.5-in. for Blade Two) are mounted symmetrically equidistant from it so that their acoustic centres occupy exactly the same point in space.

This single apparent source configuration is what makes the Blade & Blade Two so gratifyingly coherent across the frequency range, with noticeably more precise imaging than is possible from any conventional speaker.

What you hear sounds as if it's being performed live right in front of you.

Discrete Bass Chambers

The twinned pairs of bass drivers are mounted in discrete chambers separated by an internal partition. By increasing the frequency of any internal standing waves to way beyond the crossover point, this reduces the need for damping material (which can otherwise impair bass quality). Nothing has been overlooked in the quest for the ultimate clarity, right across the frequency range.

Force Cancelling

To avoid dissipating the energy of such potent bass drivers in exciting the cabinet (and thereby generating resonance, especially at high volume), the large kinetic forces involved are cancelled out by mounting the LF drivers rigidly together, back-to-back.

By minimising cabinet colouration, this highly effective configuration partly accounts for the Blade & Blade Two's natural-sounding and engagingly musical performance.

Attention to Detail

With speakers as ambitious as the Blade & Blade Two, short cuts are out of the question. Everything has to be as right as it can possibly be.

Terminals & Terminal Links

Two pairs of the finest audiophile quality WBT connectors allow bi-wiring or bi-amping to optimise the retrieval of low level detail in the music.

Low Order Crossovers

The simple low order crossovers specified for both Blade & Blade Two employ the best components available, carefully selected by a rigorous auditioning process so that every part of the signal path is fine-tuned for maximum clarity.

Hard Wiring

The patented screw-in linking plugs are to full audiophile specification (as well as simplifying set-up by eliminating fiddly wiring links). All the crossover components are individually wired by hand rather than mounted on a conventional printed circuit board. As well as being more environment-friendly, this optimises both reliability and sound quality by assuring the cleanest possible signal transmission.

Design and Designer

The challenge was to design an acoustically efficient enclosure for a sizeable speaker whose driver configuration demanded large capacity at the upper portion, without looking at all bulky.