Ah, okay Ric. More powerful neodymium magnetic structures makes for a whole new ballgame, and explains the higher sensitivity. It strikes me as surprising how after all this time (33 years since the LFT-8 was introduced) Thigpen suddenly shifts into higher gear and gets ambitious with his LFT loudspeaker. And then Magnepan is getting ready to introduce their new model, which will also include powered dipole woofers and DSP electronics. Pretty exciting!
Steve Guttenberg finally reviews the Eminent Technology LFT-8b loudspeaker.
Over the past few years I and a number of other owners of the Eminent Technology LFT-8b have on this site extolled the virtues of this under-acknowledged loudspeaker. I myself have encouraged those interested in Magnepans to try and hear the LFT-8 before buying. That is not easy, as ET has only five U.S.A. dealers.
I am a long-time fan of Maggies, having bought my first pair (Tympani T-I) in 1973, my last (Tympani T-IVa) a few years ago. But the Tympani’s need a LOT of room (each 3-panel speaker is slightly over 4’ wide!), which I currently don’t have. So I gave a listen to the MG 1.7i, and didn’t much care for it. As I recounted in a thread here awhile back, I found the 1.7 to sound rather "wispy", lacking in body and tonal density (thank you Art Dudley ;-).
Brooks Berdan was (RIP) a longtime ET dealer, installing a lot the company’s linear-tracking air-bearing arm on Oracle, VPI, and SOTA tables. After Brooks’ passing his wife Sheila took over management of the shop, continuing on as an ET dealer. I knew Brooks was a fan of the LFT-8, and he had very high standards in loudspeakers (his main lines were Vandersteen, Wilson, and Quad). The shop had a used pair of LFT-8’s, so I gave them a listen. They sounded good enough to me to warrant investigate further, so I had Sheila order me a pair, along with the optional (though nearly mandatory) Sound Anchor bases.
I wouldn’t waste your time if I didn’t consider the ET LFT-8b to be just as I have on numerous occasions (too many times for some here) described it: the current best value in all of hi-fi. Hyperbole? Well, you no longer have to take it from just me and the other owners here: Steve Guttenberg finally got around to getting in for review a pair (the LFT-8 has been in production for 33 years!), and here is what he has to say about it. After watching the video, you can read other reviews (in a number of UK mags, and in TAS by Robert E. Greene) on the ET website.
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all speakers no matter how much the cost are crap they're all very two-dimensional sounding and they don't throw a very wide three-dimensional and enveloping sound stage there's only one speaker out there that does that exceptionally well, and that's the monitor audio platinum series, get in touch with audio facts in the Netherlands and they'll tell you why and they have 7 $8,000 worth of testing equipment to prove it. |
@magnuman : the Linkwitz tri-amped open baffle speaker may have the best 3-D imaging of any dynamic system. I doubt that any Monitor Audio speaker can compare. |
Not a huge fan of Steve almost everything sounds good , not true Eminent technologies , myself and 2 others I know have had panels go out , they are made in China and found out these cost less then $800 including boxes . you get what you pay for , you absolutely need a minimum of 150wpc into 8 ohms if you don’t want to tax the panels into distortion ,which is the killer of these panels on transients thepower demand can climb many times ,look at the 83 sensitivity. that’s why you need a minimum of 150 clean power the Parasound 23A is a good match the 21A much better still with plenty of current on demand . Much better then tubes especially if you want R&R levels of music over a long play session . my friend had a Emotiva and didnot workout too well too much distortion at upper levels. Keep that in mind if you plan on buying them quality counts.
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