Steve Guttenberg finally reviews the Eminent Technology LFT-8b loudspeaker.

@dynamiclinearity ​​@bdp24 - as @mijostyn pointed out, the SPL dropoff with distance has nothing to do with the speakers being planars or dipoles.  

Line source speakers produce a cylindrical wavefront (whether they are dipoles or not), which has an SPL falloff of 3db with each doubling of distance. A point source speaker (most conventional speakers) produces a spherical wavefront which reduces SPL by 6db with doubling distance. 

This is why you'll see a stack of speakers on stage for large rock concerts, creating an effective line array so that the audience sitting close to the stage doesn't get totally blasted out when the sound is loud enough for the audience in the rear. 

Using a dipole sub vs a conventional sub isn't going to affect the SPL falloff in the bass, but since the wavelengths are so long, the sound pressure at any point in the room is affected as much by room modes as anything else. 

That said, I do prefer the sound quality from dipole subs (for music). I think they sound more natural and integrate more seamlessly with dipole main speakers. 

Okay Albert (@ledoux1238), two pics sent---Eric.

For others interested, the Mye LFT-8 stand looks just like the Sound Anchor bases (including the two front "legs" which extend out from the bass enclosure), with the addition of support arms (I believe Grant Mye calls them "struts") that are attached to the back corners of the stand and reach up to the side rails, right at the middle of the tweeter’s length. The two arms clamp onto the side rails just as seen in the Mye stands for Maggies.

I suppose one could just add support arms to the Sound Anchor bases, but it would take some fabricating ability and tools.

@bdp24 Eric, thanks for the photos. I would like to keep the SA stands, so I may end up fabricating a set of struts with a local metal worker.

@chowkwan Very impressive set and twin LFT 8a's! What is a ' Super Lumi ' phono?

It is clear that LFT 8's suffer from a lack of brand identity and a lot of disinformation. Some of the un-truths have been floating around for ages, and despite continuous attempts to correct, still persist. Refuting  some of the un-truths : They are made in the US of A; they are tube amp friendly, 20 W min; they have a wide and deep enough sweet spot; .......etc

What I don't understand is this: The ET 2 linear tonearm from the same brand enjoys a very healthy reputation and respect. A thread here on Audiogon on the ET arm has over a million views. However, the speaker from Eminent Technology seemed consistently under-rated. Is the speaker world much more competitive with many more choices? Did the ET arm established itself  in an era of less good tonearms , and hence garnered good reviews and established a fan base  early?

That’s a great idea Albert. From the pics it appears the only difference between the Sound Anchors base and the Mye stand are the struts. I had thought of cutting some 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood into appropriate length strips (maybe 1/5" wide), screwing two of those homemade struts onto the top of the bass enclosure and back of the planar panel (at each top corner). Not elegant, but then I’m not an elegant guy. ;-)

I too am mystified by the low profile of the LFT-8b. Everybody knows about Maggies, very few about the Eminent Technology speaker. Of course ET having only five U.S.A. dealers and not advertising doesn’t help! I was lucking in having a great dealer who actually had a pair of LFT-8’s in his listening room.

Brooks Berdan was one of ET’s biggest dealers, installing a LOT of ET arms on Oracle, VPI, and SOTA tables. Brooks was also a Music Reference dealer, and the RM-9 Mk.2 and RM-200 Mk.2 amps work splendidly with the LFT-8. Both tube amps, 125w/ch and 100w/ch respectively. Unlike the 3-4 ohm Maggies, high current not needed.

Today I took delivery of a pair of Orchard Audio Starkrimson GaN mono amps. They are Class D analog switching amplifiers with outboard power supplies. 
I bought them from the owner of ArgentPur cables, a nice fellow named Ernie Meunier. They came with a short run of silver speaker cable wired to each amp manual. The Starkrimson monos were the TAS Budget product of the year in 2021. I can see why; more aptly, I can hear why. 
 

 I’ve generally been a tube guy over the past 25 years, but I’ve never owned a high power tube amp nor tried any with LFTs (I became a dealer aroun2004 or so).  I should have; my QS EL34 monos are underpowered at 35wpc into 8 ohms.  And so is my Pass Aleph 30 and it’s gain and input sensitivity are low and I use a Khozmo passive balanced pre. The Orchards are balanced only and my Sim Moon LP5.3 phono stage and Soekris DAC 1541 are also balanced with SE  option. I also have both original Quads and ESL 63s in lovely condition. To my ears, the 8B beats them in my room with these amps. They are utterly liquid, natural, dynamic, spacious and  resolving. So beautifully balanced and relaxed that I can listen all day.  I don’t want for anything else; they have the virtues of nice tube amplifiers and none of the problems plaguing so many solid-state devices I’ve heard over the years, such as dryness, brightness or any hardness or other artifacts.

All that remains is to get the 8C upgrade. I’ve already sent Bruce an email-:)