Are the KEF Blade/Blade 2 Metas a Significant Upgrade from Blade?

I’m afraid I haven’t heard the Michi amplifiers live but I’ve heard and read many accolades. I will say that I’ve found the Coda 16 to be a very special match for my Blade 2s, refined, musical, authoritative, with as much power as my Blades will ever desire in my room. All the best!

Well, that Rotel Michi mono amp must be quite an impressive design and engineering effort. While its power consumption is rated at 1,200 watts it somehow manages to output 1,800 watts into 4 ohms. A Class A/B amp cannot output more power than it consumes so I suspect its ratings are somewhat "optimistic".

... the measured output power at clipping was 1322W @ 8Ω and 2250W @ 4Ω.
They also made instantaneous peak power measurements which resulted in outputs of 1640W @ 8Ω, 3130W @ 4Ω, 1790W @ 2Ω, 960W @ 1Ω.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/rotel-michi-m8-mono-power-ampiifier-lab-report

These are slightly lower than the specified powers, but it isn't possible to hold the wall voltage constant during the tests. Rotel warns in the M8's manual that 4 ohms is the recommended minimum load impedance. I did think about examining how much power was available into 2 ohms once I had finished the testing, but when I reexamined how much power could be delivered into 4 ohms before doing so, I tripped the circuit breaker. Hint taken.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/rotel-michi-m8-monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements

Idk, I would be more interested in the Michi if the numbers were flipped around. give me 960 into 8 0hms and 1640 into 2 with 3130 into 1. That would get me interested. The H590 is only 300 into 8 ohms but over 2000 into 1 ohm and some of these speakers have nasty xovers.

I noticed in a very recent Stereophile review of Blade 2 Meta that the reviewer did not address a sonic comparison with the original Blade 2, which won component of the year 2015. Curious, as this would be of significant interest. Do you think this omission might have been a favor to the manufacturer, rather than saying Blade 2 Meta is a mildly improved version?