Eminent Technology LFT-8b in Harry's system

I’ve never owned Magnepan Tympani’s but I did own their 3.7i’s for 3 years and really thought they were a great speaker. I also tried a pair of their DWM woofers and that was a fun speaker system. lewm spoke highly of their ribbon tweeter, I thought that true ribbon tweeter was one of the best tweeters I had ever heard, the high frequency extension on that tweeter was insane. My room was not as big as I would have liked (17’ x 12’x 8’ ceiling) but after much trial and error (mostly error) I finally found the “right” spot and then they loaded the room amazingly well. The right side of the frame was only 16” from the wall to the right of the speaker and to my surprise and delight it worked. I have always wondered what they would have sounded like if I could have got them 2 - 3’ from the side walls? I have noticed a lot of guys on this forum comparing the LFT8B’s to the Maggie 1.7’s. I now own the LFT8B’s and prefer them over the 3.7i’s, I don’t think the 1.7’s are even in the same ballpark (other then the price). In my opinion, there are very few speakers, regardless of price, that can rival the LFT8B’s. 

Scot

In the LFT driver, Bruce Thigpen found a solution to many of the shortcomings audiophiles have long considered Maggies to have. It's too bad more of them can't hear the LFT-8b, buying the 1.7i not knowing what they could have for only a few hundred dollars more. Brooks Berdan carried the ET speakers as his only planars, but made a lot more money selling Wilsons ;-) . 

Scot: "been around for over 3 decades and in all that time I believe he has made only one change to the design".

I'm not an authority on the ET speakers but if they went from LFT-8 to 8a to 8b then I imagine there must have been two changes sufficient enough that Thigpen made a model change.  And there could have been minor changes not in themselves warranting a model change.

But I think your basic point that the design survived more than 30 years with minimal changes speaks to the brilliance of that design.

I'm not in the market today, but if I am again I will certainly consider the ETs, thanks to bdp's posts along with others.

Yes, the "a" update addressed issues with the ribbon tweeter's x/o (but not the tweeter itself), the "b" the 8" dynamic woofer.. You’ll notice that the LFT (Linear Field Transducer) magnetic-planar driver itself---which handles frequencies 180Hz through 10kHz, with no cross-over---has remained unchanged for over 30 years!

BTW, Harry Weisfeld now has Apollo 12 loudspeakers in his home in his reference system. Apollos are an AMT based line array.