KEF Blade or Giya Kaya 90/G4?

I have heard the Giya Spirit G1 (or whatever the current top model is called) and it sounded incredible. It was driven by excellent Luxman SS gear (over $200k system). This was just immediately after I heard the Blade 1 driven by Hegel gear ($40K - $70K via amps. The Blade 1 sounded better to me but my criteria for greatness may differ from others. I like a holographic 3D sound where the speakers disappear and the instruments and musicians are placed clearly in a large soundstage. Sort of like hearing and seeing a performance at the same time. The Blades were better at this than the Vivid and I have yet heard a speaker that did the stuff i like better.

I listen to the Blade with someone from Hegel in a large room for an hour+. The Giya I listen in a great sport with about 4 or 5 people for about 20 minutes.

I have recently started investigating a floor stander for my office. The Blades are too big so I started looking at various other options. One option was the Vivid G4. Have not heard it yet but reviews say smaller sound to the larger Giya models. I spoke to the previous Vivid USA distributor and they recommend the G3 over the G4. They were not too high on the G4, maybe they had an G3 to sell and not a G4. They did say that  the 125 watt Luxman 509x would drive the G3 with ease. The Blades need a lot more power from my past listening experience.

I have located a dealer close to me that sells the Vivid Kaya 90/45. The people I spoke with (reviewer and dealers) who have heard the Kaya line told me that I should focus on that model for an office and save the cash. I will have  a big speaker audition week sometime in the next few months and the Kaya 45 is on the list. 

Thanks for your experience.  I really prefer speakers that don't crave amp power, that are relatively efficient even if they have lower impedance curves.  That's why I don't care for B&W, Wilsons and Magicos among other reasons that they just don't sound as musically involving.  My wife liked the Blade 2 we heard and the Ultra 11 von Schweikert is her favorite but too expensive.  I want to keep my custom 125 watt Class A/B tube amps and mate them with dynamic speakers.  

It's difficult to determine what a speaker sounds like compared to another using different equipment.  Both the Giya and the Blade are modern and attractive looking to us (while the Wilson and Magico are not).  Older Audio Physic speakers also were good at disappearing but are not as dynamic or wideband as the Blades.  

I'd like to know what you think of the Kaya.  I guess the Giya 4 is too small sounding for my 25' X 23' X12.5' room.  

Gentleman, we had the Vivid line and the Kef Blades and Reference at the same time in the same showroom.

Our take was the Kef line was similar sounding for less money then the Vivids.

We too heard the big Giyas and at $70-95k they were more dynamic with even greater bass punch then the Blades, however, a  pair of Blades with a pair of good subwoofers still would come out at half the price of the Giyas.

 A well setup pair of Blades is one of the very few $30k speakers that can be compared to $70-100k models from most of the industry.

We had the Oval B1 and V1.5 in our showroom and the B1 were superb, clarity, soundstaging, but in most respects were not better than the less expensive Kef Reference line. 

We ultimately gave up the Vivid line as they didn't really outperfom, the Kef's and both lines sounded similar with similar design attributes with both sporting very high tech aluminium drivers.

The Ref 3 or Ref 1 when setup correctly do sound similar to the Blades if the Blade 2 are still too big for your office.

Ysantabarbara, if you are looking for a fantastic smaller speaker listen to the new Quad Z series unbelievable performance for the money. The Z3 are tiny floorstanders, with one of the best sounding ribbon's that isn't sterile sounding or hyper detailed. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ