Amps for KEF Blade 2


I am looking for advice from owners or dealers of the KEF Blade 2 loudspeakers. I am concerned my current pair of amps will not be sufficient for the B2s because of an article written about the original Blades published on July 5, 2013 in The Absolute Sound:

"The Blades have a nasty kick in their crossover that will suck an amplifier dry quicker than a student downing free tequila shots ... Just don’t be tempted to cheapskate on the driving amps, or you’ll live to regret it. Tube amps at least have an output transformer to hide behind, but when the Blades suck out a solid-state design, they celebrate by spotlighting their tweeter something chronic. To give you some idea of the lengths required, the otherwise excellent Rowland 625 [550 watts into 4 Ohms] wasn’t up to the job, it taking a pair of the 725 monoblocs [650 watts into 4 Ohms] to restore order. "

Are the Blade 2s just as demanding as the original Blades in terms of amplification? I would guess not due to the smaller 6.5 inch woofers, but this is just an uneducated guess. I own a pair of Benchmark AHB2 amps, which according to the manufacturer produce “a little over 500 watts into 4 Ohms”. Will this be enough?
e91811
I have had the Blades for one week. Currently running on woefully under-powered NAD M3 integrated (described as dual mono block design) and actually the Kefs sound rather good.

I have had the Blade2 for two days. Using my NAD C298 amp and it's going swimmingly. 

I did buy the Blade 1's and my hegel h360 has plenty of power to drive them. I was thinking of upgrading to the h590 but the h360 is really getting it done.

H590 in the house! I’ve been talking to the shop owner that sold me the h360 since I got the blades last summer. The blades didn’t sound starved for power but the h590 does raise the bar across the board. This unit is said to be new in box for axpona and demo discount applies, at least I think so. If this is the same price as the other store demos I’ll probably buy it. Bass is tighter and everything else is just more. The 590 sounds like it has more control at all fq’s, more than I would expect an additional 50 wpc to sound like. I’d bought a project s2 digital to piggyback the h360 for full mqa and a new dac but I think the card in the 590 is acquitting itself nicely. More to come.