KEF blades 2 or Dynaudio C4?

I was so excited to hear the blades when first released, then the blade 2.   I heard them at one of the audio shows, and on several occasions.   Being a fan of concentric drivers, and looking at the cabinet design, I thought they would have been ideal.   However I didn't hear anything in them that had the realism ( or any of the other sonic quality) of the TAD concentric drivers in the CR1'S.  

I've owned C2's an C4's.  Both require higher volume to sound their best... so I'd take Dynaudio out of consideration if you prefer listening at low volume.  I moved on to Harbeth M-40.1's and never looked back.   The 40.1's perform well at low to medium volume, but lack the modern aesthetics of the C4's and KEF Blades.  I'd add Verity, Acoustic Zen and Sonus Faber to your list of speaker brands to consider.

@pdreher were your C2/4's the originals? I ask because I had the original C1's and later upgraded to the Signatures. The Originals did really need to be very loud to sound the best. The MKII/Sig's on the other hand sounded the best at mid levels. Still sounded great loud but also found the Sig's didn't play quite as loud. I had 2 friends that also had C4 Sig's and they sounded great at mid levels unlike the originals. Never heard the Platinums but heard from some that owned all of them say the Platinums sounded a bit tipped up in the highs.

Dynaudio should be shipping the new Confidence series by the end of the year. I heard they are dropping the Evidence with the new Confidence taking its place. BTW I think the S40's are killer for the money and hope the new Confidence are S40's on steroids. If so Dyn will have some great speakers.

That said everyone has their own tastes and expectations when it comes to SQ. I heard the Blades (not blade2) at 2017 Axpona driven by Hegel. To me the highs were ear piercing. I think we all know rooms at shows are less than ideal. I was with a group of 4. Me and one other person couldn't tolerate the highs. One said they were OK and he was a former C4 Sig owner. The last liked them a lot and he is a current C4 Sig owner. IMO the Dyn's are laid back where the Blades were more dynamic - forward and tipped up. I preferred the Dyn's. As a previous Dyn lover and owner I now have Raidho.  Went from the Dyn C1 Sig to the Raidho D1 then D2 then D2.1 and now the D3.1. I did have a 10 day in home demo of the original Dyn C2's and liked the C1's better in my room.

BTW my room is 14' X 26 1/2' with speakers on the long wall.

xti16... yes my C2's and C4's where the original version.

Emaillists, most of the shows that the Blades have been shown at have been setup by KEF and so the partnering gear is usually good but not top of the line electronics, cabling and source components.

Peter Bruninnger of AVS Showrooms, complemented our setup of the Blades saying that in all the times he heard the Blades he never loved them until he heard our setup. 

We are not saying that we are necessarily better then any other dealer, only that we put together a well matched setup that did honor to the Blades.

One of the things that we tend to do differently is to try different brands of electronics, cabling and sources until we come up with a synergistic match.  Too many dealers will not necessairly go shopping for a new brand of product or products if what they have doesn't really work. 

Most people will expect to drive a $25-32k set of speakers with proper matching electronics which in our mind would be $20k+ range of electronics, not including a proper source $7-20k range and matching cabling and power conditioning. 

If you look at some of the show setups they have been $5k integrated amps, a laptop vs a dedicated server, and relatively inexpensive cabling.

If you drive the Kef's correctly the top end is detailed with no harshness, you get thunderous deep bass, incredible dynamics and a very wide and well focused soundstage.

The Dynaudio's are very musical speakers their approach to driver design is more old school, Kef is always pushing the boundary of design and technology like very few small companies can do. 

If you read the white papers on the Blade and Reference series their are so many advanced technologies seen in these loudspeakers that have been implimented in order to lower distortion and uncover details not seen in other designs.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ