Blade 2, Sabrina, Fact 12, Sopra 2 or Scala ?

I will agree with you on the Reference vs the Blades, the Blades are much more holographic and their midrange and imaging is even better.

As we discussed once before,  we would welcome you to visit our showroom in Jersey City to hear both the Blades as well as the Paradigm Persona 9H in the same room at the same time which might make it easy.

Both the Blades and Personas are remarkable speakers that rival the $70k and above reference Wilson and JM Labs products, for a lot less.

With that being said both are tricky, the Paradigms have such remarkable transparency you have to tune them with warmer electronics, the Blades use side firing woofers and their bass quality and quantitity is affected more by room placement and configuration, they too have great clarity and dyanmics but are a bit less transparent and throw a gigantic slightly less holographic sound stage. Bass on both speakers is amazing, the Personas bass is a bit tighter and a tad more dry. The Blades bass is truly spectacular with a bit more thump.

Our pairing of the T+A electronics with the Personas is a stunning combination with remarkable clarity and a spooky holographic feeling. 

In our experience, the T+A equipment reprsents the highest quality electronics with some of the most uniue technology and some of the best sound you will ever hear.

The T+A integratred amp at $19k was compared to $120k worth of CH precision equipment, in the TAS review, March 2016 issue, you can read it on line,  and Allan Taffel was having a hard time differentiating which was better. There are very few affordable amplifiers that can play at that level, the T+A gear is such. 

T+A runs their solid state devices on high voltage rails which mimics the sound of tubes but without their limitations, add in a massive power supply and the amp produces 300 watts at 8 ohms and 500 watts at 4 ohms and basically appears limitless. Combine that with a huge sound stage and a warm midrange, this is truly amazing gear.

You can compare the T+A gear to Boulder, CH Precision, Dagastino, and you will find that their equipment is in that uber league yet costs considerably less. 

Audio Doctor
Troy or Dave
877 428 2873

No Bar81, I don’t. This gentleman is inquiring about Blades which we have a lot of experience in and Personas which we also carry.

As per shilling, not even close.

My personal feeling is along with our store owner, is that the Blades when setup properly rival a lot of way more expensive speakers, now same with the Personas.

However with that being said, you almost never hear prospective clients on these forums talking about the Blades, what you hear is Wilson, Rockport, etc.

We were at the NY audio show in 2013 and we listened to the $107 YG and they weren’t better than the Blades at $32k.

Most of the audio press is more beholden to their advertisers and very rarely will you ever hear that kind of honest expose that a product from a more mainstream company is building as good or perhaps better product then the boutique companies.

I am not saying Wilson, Rockport, Magico aren’t great speakers, we recommend that people listen to those brands as well as the Kefs and Personas.

Also if you have been following this thread the OP feels the same as we do.

I am just so sick and tired of hearing that company X is the best speaker when there are alternative sometimes at half the price that rival or may exceed their performance, and snobishness and eliitism is what is holding these brands back not performance.

I have never said that my brands of speakers: ATC,Dali, Kef , Legacy,, Paradigm, PSB, Gradient, Tannoy, etc are the best speakers, I have said that in many ways some of our speakrs, in particular the Blades and the Personas, may rival or in some ways transparency, and image holography may actually improve upon some of these others brands and do so for considerably less.

You can see the vitrolic attitudes when one guy met my friend and store owner, at an audio show and was pissed off that Dave was presentinng the Usher BE 10 as a rival to Wilson at $7k less.

Our store philosophy has always been about finding amazing products and were ever possible find products that perform higher then their price points.

It is our opinion that many stores sell by brand not by sound.

I would put it to you that how many $19k products have been compared to $120k worth of really expensive Swiss electronics with the conclusion of the reviewer being that the $19k piece was so close to the big rig that he had trouble determining which was constantly better.

If I was a regular consumer I would be reallly interested to check out that product and or brand and not sit back in my little ivory tower and not question about a possible upgrade if that product made sense.

Too many audiophiles will never question if there is something new and better from a different brand or one of these new vanguard products from the larger players.

All I know is we are commited to finding value as well as extraordinary products at sometimes at way lower products.

You don’t know us and you certainly don’t know of our motives gee Bar I wonder if I read your posts what brand of products are you enthusiastic about. If you are on the East Coast and you want to come in and meet us please see for yourself the kinds of products and sound we can make and then judge for yourself our character and motives.

Troy
Audio Doctor
877 428 2873

Sorry for the off topic I was responding to ZZsatntabarabera

This is an interesting list, except that the Sabrina should be Sasha in the same ball park.

Kef Blade 1 is more competitive vs Scala Utopia.

Blade more deep bass, plays louder, more focused image

Scala, more transparency in the highs, a bit fatter in the midrange, a punchy, airy sounding speaker,  it depends on what you like the Focal's Beryllium tweeter is more detailed and a tad more airy, Blade ones sound bigger with more deep bass. A harder call with the Blade 2, 

The fact 8 is a nice speaker less magical in all ways then all of the others, nicely balanced smooth treble tight tuneful bass. 

WIlson Sabrina or Sasha tweeter not as good as the Scalas, punchy big soundstage, not as articulate as the Blades or Scalas, a great rock speakers. I would probably take the Scalas, as the treble transparency is better, The Focals don''t have as precise an image as the Wilsons.

So it comes down to what you prefer, these are all great speakers, I would go for the Scalas or Blades.