Eminent Technology LFT8B’s reversing woofer polarity

There is a guy on the Planar Speaker Asylum who has run a brace between his pair of Magneplanar Tympani T-IVa and the wall behind them. He says that has resulted in a noticeable increase in not only sound quality, but also increased bass out of the twin woofer panels. Grant offers a stand for the T-IV, but it costs as much as I paid for my pair of that loudspeaker!

@scothurwitz: There is no pic of the LFT-8b stand on the Mye Sound website, nor is it listed on the pricing page. I emailed Grant to see if he took a pic of the pair he made for you. May I contact you via email, and bother you for a pic or two? Thanks---Eric.

I remain astonished at the fact that many more people own Magnepan 1.7's than the LFT-8b. Eminent Technology is a very low-profile company, as are a number of my other favorite hi-fi brands (Music Reference, EAR Yoshino, Townshend, London, GR Research, Rythmik). Buying the LFT-8b requires a leap of faith for people without an ET dealer nearby. I luckily had one such: Brooks Berdan Ltd. in Monrovia, CA. Brooks chose the LFT-8b as his magnetic-planar loudspeaker, and steered me towards it (and towards Music Reference). Thanks Brooks, miss ya buddy :-( . 

While I am sure the Mye stands are excellent, there is another person who also makes stands for Maggies. The company is Magnarisers and while I do not own Maggies I was impressed enough with the stands and their price that I contacted him to make stands for my Acoustat Model 2 speakers (sans interface as I use the direct drive amps). He did a great job for a reasonable price and there was a noticeable improvement getting them off the floor.

@clio09: Yeah, the Magnariser's are a great value. Their Maggie stands are a simplified and lighter weight version of the stand Sound Anchors has for years been making. The difference between the Sound Anchors and Magnariser Maggie stands and the Mye is obviously the Mye providing bracing 2/3rds the way up the panel height, in effect stiffening the rather flimsy MDF frame the Maggie drivers are mounted in.

In contrast, the Eminent Technology LFT drivers have a stiff metal frame onto which they are bolted. That frame is then mounted into a cut out in the speaker's MDF baffle. Supporting and stiffening that MDF baffle can be only a good thing! 

Hi guys (and gals)

I to, probably like most of us, used the Sound Anchor stands and liked them. You fill them with sand, adjust the rake angle, and you’re good to go.

One of the weak points of the LFT8B’s design is in the way the panel attaches to the woofer box (no offense Bruce). Five small wood screws screwed into an MDF woofer box just isn’t very secure. If you put your finger on the top of the panel and move it forwards & backwards there is a lot of movement. With the Mye stand in place, no movement whatsoever. That panel now feels like it’s part of the floor!

The thicker metal Mye stand with the upright braces that bolt to the thicker metal bases of the stand allow the upright braces to attach to the sides of the panels with a metal “C” clamp and  makes that panel MUCH more stable. The “C” clamp attached to the sides of the panels was done at my request. Grant wanted the upright bracing to screw into the backs of the frames but I felt the attachment points were too close to the tensioning adjustments for the midrange panels and didn’t want to risk going anywhere near those cam adjusters. I felt the “C” clamps attached to the sides of the panels were an acceptable aesthetic compromise. That is the key element of the Mye stand and why the imaging within the soundstage becomes rock solid and instruments are now pinpoint stable. 

My my pair of Mye stands were the first pair Grant has ever made. It doesn’t surprise me that there are no pictures of them on his website yet or have been added to the price sheet. I feel pricing is very reasonable. I paid $560.00 for the pair including shipping (from Canada) to Illinois. He includes all necessary hardware and an Allen key for assembly. The fit and finish is very nice (all metal surfaces are powder coated). The price/performance ratio is well worth it. 

This is embarrassing to admit but here we go, I am terrible with computers and have never used the camera on my smart phone (I’ll wait for the laughter to die down) I will try to figure out how to take a couple of pictures and email them to my computer so I can post some pictures for everyone. 

Anyone who would like to contact me through email is more than welcome to. I don’t think Audiogon allows people to post their email but if they do here it is:  scothurwitz@comcast.net. If that doesn’t work, feel free to direct message me. Tanks and take care.

Scot

Thanks Scot, expect an email from me ;-) . Grant sent me a diagram of the stand in an email, and it looks fantastic. I'm very familiar with his Maggie stands, which also secure to their frames with C clamps. I think I may get my LFT-8 Mye stands made to screw into the baffle, but I'll discuss that with Grant. I'm a little more concerned with aesthetics than I should be ;-) , and those C clamps give the Mye stands a homemade look.

The Mye Maggie stands are far better than the Sound Anchors version, as they brace the thin MDF baffle, the Sound Anchor just bolting onto the bottom of the Maggie baffle. The same is of course true with their LFT-8 stand, but it was quite an improvement over the stock ET "legs", which are a joke, inappropriate on such a fine loudspeaker.