Has Anyone ACTUALLY Listened to the Kef Blade?

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Has Anyone ACTUALLY Listened to the Kef Blade?

I saw one of the people from What HiFi on the video cast, and they looked at the Kef Blade. Did anyone actually listen to them?

If so, did they sound like a £1,000,000?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, I heard them at the Munich High End show last year, where they were launched. I think the million-pound figure is a bit of a red herring, as that is presumably the entire development cost, and not what a pair would sell for were they to be put into production.

I thought the sound was rather more average than I'd hoped, or at least not special, given all the engineering effort behind them, but then that could have been down to the partnering electronics at the time, details of which elude me almost a year later.

No idea how they sounded at Bristol, as I wasn't there.

 

[Anonymous]

I believe with sound, you get to a point where you can't get any better, and spending thousands more only makes very minor differences. I may be pointing out the obvious here, but some people don't think so.

My problem with expensive speakers is that you start to focus more on the quality rather than the music. I understand people say 'expensive speakers have opened me up to new types of music.' But you would you listen to that type of music with cheap speakers? I think not.

I also believe psychology plays a HUGE part in it! If I was to sit someone down and say to them this system is worth £100,000. Then play some music, they would automatically think WOW. However, if I told them that system is worth only £2,000, they would most likely be far more judgemental.

Anyway, back to topic. Has anyone else heard the Kef Blade?

 

[Anonymous]

1978:1m £. Can someone please state clearly how much each component of these speakers plus labour etc. cost so as together they sum up 1 million - only then I could believe it. In this case I am a sceptic.

I agree. The profit that Hi-Fi companies make on expensive products is rather repulsive.

 

[Andy Clough]

I think you'll find their value is as much to do with their rarity - after all, there's only one pair in the entire world - rather than just the physical cost of the components. And as Andrew said, that probably includes all the R&D that's gone in to developing them.

It's the same with concept cars at motor shows. They're worth a small fortune as design concepts/engineering mules. That doesn't mean they'll cost £1m or whatever when they go into production.

And to get back to the original question: yes, both our mag Editor Dom and Tech Ed Ketan heard them at KEF's HQ last year, so I've asked them to post a response when they get a mo.

 

[The_Lhc]

ajharris:1978:1m £. Can someone please state clearly how much each component of these speakers plus labour etc. cost so as together they sum up 1 million - only then I could believe it. In this case I am a sceptic.
I agree. The profit that Hi-Fi companies make on expensive products is rather repulsive.

I think someone needs to do their homework.

The speakers don't cost £1m to buy, because they aren't for sale, in the same way that concept cars aren't for sale. They're VALUED at £1m because they're the only pair in the world. They're a technology study, not a saleable product. There's no profit to be made, as they'll never be sold to the public.

D'oh! Beat me to it Andy...

 

[Andy Clough]

Correct

 

[AEJim]

It's common marketing practice - "here's our concept, but we'll never make it and it would cost a gazillion dollars", then a year later you will see a watered down version boasting many of the features but costing "just" $20,000... Bargain! It's as old as the Bose© "Space-age technology" trademarks that work exceptionally well for that company, so much so that the premise worked its way into everything - even shampoo (you know the thing - flashy computer graphics on the ads followed by "Nutri-moistulization complexT" slogan etc.)

At the end of the day there's not much real new-tech going on in speakers, just small incremental advancements on the old stuff. The last real development on the cone-driver speaker was probably the electrostatic and that was many, many moons ago... We all progress the materials etc where we can but much like the combustion engine and bicycle there's no revolution (pardon the pun) just yet!

 

[Andrew Everard]

1978, ajh: the speakers themselves aren't a million pounds. KEF is saying the whole project is a £1m investment, and that what it has learned in developing the CBs will bear fruit in other mass-market models.

I'm reminded of the time when one British audio company - no names, but it rhymes with Sprarcam - advertised one of its receivers with an ad line about it looking a million dollars, and supporting copy saying that's what it cost to develop.

The good Dr Zucker, then running TAG McLaren Audio, took a look at the ad, paused for a beat or two, then said with his typical disdain, 'A million? Is that all?".

 

[Andy Clough]

1978:If so then it should be stated clearly whenever they are showed "These speakers value is estimated for 1m as the only bla bla bla...." and not "The speakers cost " !

Which is why Dom makes it perfectly clear in the video that they're worth £1m and will never be sold. The clue is in the name CONCEPT Blade.

 

[Andrew Everard]

1978:and not "The speakers cost " !

But that's what the speakers did cost, at least according to KEF.

 

[The_Lhc]

1978:If so then it should be stated clearly whenever they are showed "These speakers value is estimated for 1m as the only bla bla bla...." and not "The speakers cost " !

That's exactly what they are saying. To my knowledge the only person who's said they cost £1m to buy is yourself.

They may have cost £1m to *develop* but that isn't the same as saying that's what they'll cost to buy.

Honestly, some people (that's a general comment about people plural, rather than any specific person) have no idea how business works...

 

[Anonymous]

Andy Clough:
1978:If so then it should be stated clearly whenever they are showed "These speakers value is estimated for 1m as the only bla bla bla...." and not "The speakers cost " !

Which is why Dom makes it perfectly clear in the video that they're worth £1m and will never be sold. The clue is in the name CONCEPT Blade.

I was confused. I thought he meant the speakers cost £1,000,000. Not including R&D.

Silly me 😉

 

[Andrew Everard]

ajharris:The profit that Hi-Fi companies make on expensive products is rather repulsive.

And how exactly do you know how much profit these companies make on their products? I mean, when all the costs of development, etc., are taken into consideration...?

 

[Andrew Everard]

1978:just pure business.

Company in 'running a business' shock horror. Mind you, your thesis does overlook the Muons...

 

[proffski]

Yes at Bristol... It is a shame that the first piece of "NOISE" the KEF team chose to play wass just that, damned NOISE! About as much dynamic range and as musical as a recording of a bag of nails falling down a tin roof and played back on an 8 track cartridge. The 2nd piece a choral work in a church was staggereing, very panel electrostatic like, sublime holographic detail. Nowhere near enough time for a proper evaluation and the mean so and so's would not let me take them home to try!

 

[The_Lhc]

1978:To my opinion ( and I don't oppose nor try to negate be anti-anything bar the word "cost" ) it's a lovely marketing gimmick. Simple - A company who is renown and has been on the market for a long time is facing a strict competition and moreover produces recently rather average sounding speakers ( WHF reviews ) - so the best idea is to build something expensive ,show them to the public , overrate the price and the people will queue for thr KEF bookshelves again...just pure business.

Of course you're entitled to your opinion, even when it's wrong.

It's a *CONCEPT*, like concept cars, it's designed to show people that the company are still trying to innovate, it's an indication of where they see the technology going in the future and yes, an opportunity to drum up a few column inches in the specialist press.

The idea that this is something to be looked on with suspicion is, frankly, bizarre. I really don't see what your problem with it is. How do you expect companies to produce new products without concepts and prototypes?

 

[Andrew Everard]

... or indeed investment in R&D?

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew Everard:
ajharris:The profit that Hi-Fi companies make on expensive products is rather repulsive.

And how exactly do you know how much profit these companies make on their products? I mean, when all the costs of development, etc., are taken into consideration...?

The word I used 'replusive' is excessive. However, companies like these don't sell much, so they have to have huge profit margins to keep them rich.

 

[Andrew Everard]

ajharris:The word I used 'replusive' is excessive. However, companies like these don't sell much, so they have to have huge profit margins to keep them rich.

Again I ask how you know about these apparently huge profit margins.

 

[Anonymous]

What makes me laugh the most is the fact that someone with enough money to afford them probably has such rubbish music taste they shouldn't legally be allowed to buy them in the first place. Its like those audiophiles who spend hundred of grands on turntables then only proceed to play their two Phil Collins LPs.

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew Everard:
ajharris:The word I used 'replusive' is excessive. However, companies like these don't sell much, so they have to have huge profit margins to keep them rich.

Again I ask how you know about these apparently huge profit margins.

I don't know that the tooth fairy isn't real, but it is pretty obvious it isn't.

Anyway, I have had enough of this thread, getting to excessive.

By the way, I don't know that they do.

 

[Tonestar1]

Not for sale?

I'm sure if I went to KEF and asked them to make me a set for one million pounds they would gladly agree. If only I had a million pounds to test their resolve.

 

[Anonymous]

Chaps. Watch the video, and I can clearly be heard to say: "There's only one pair in the world, and they're worth a million pounds - but that's kind of irrelevant, as KEF's not selling."

Now, feel free to wax virulent about the overly casual syntax if you must, but the word "worth", and very clearly not "cost" is used in that sentence.

I have listened properly to the KEF blades, about six months ago, at the Celestion factory. They had them set up in an acoustically treated listening room, with what amps I don't remember. But you could reasonably expect them to be pretty well-matched.

And they sounded very, very good. Ok?

 

[Clare Newsome]

It's not just the components that represent the cost of a concept product - it's the R&D, the design, the engineering (that often includes the engineering of the equipment to make the product, as well as the actual engineering of the product itself) and even the insurance!