Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIa

Nice response Jeff.

There are reviews here and at audioasylum. Even the nitpickers have good things to say about them. One of the principals at audioadvisor used to own, sell and like them a lot. Maybe you could just phone up and ask if he's still there and willing to talk.

They are not like Apogees in that those who are sensitive to discontinuities will hear the dynamic woofer. Never bothered me.

They are not like Innersounds in that they have somewhat wider horizontal dispersion. The Innersound sweet spot is too small for me. The ET vertical dispersion is quite narrow, however.

One person can put them together, but it's a bit of work. (Prop square spined magazines under the front brackets to line them up vertically as you screw them to the woofer cabinet.) Looks are so subjective. I thought they were handsome in a Popular Mechanics kind of way. Friends liked their transparency - that you could literally see through them. But they are undeniably chunky and made with an engineer's visual aesthetic...there's certainly no fine woodwork on that woofer box.

They don't need a sub for most music listeners. Even for home theater they might be okay, but we're not talking vmps Larger here.

Hmmm,

I have a somewhat different perspective. I've owned the Maggie Mg-III and MG-12, Carver AL-III, Acoustat 1+1, 2+2, and Model III, Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIa, InnerSound Eros original and Mk-II, Newform Research Module 30 and VMPS RM30. Additionally I've heard many other popular electrostats and ribbon speakers at length, with my own recordings.

Of the speakers I have owned and evaluated, my preference, based on overall performance, first-last, is as follows: VMPS RM30, InnerSound Eros, Acoustats & Newform Research (draw), Magnepans, ET LFT-VIII, and Carver AL-III.

When I owned the ET VIIIa, I found them easy to listen to and well-balanced. On the downside, I found them somewhat industrial in appearance, lacking in immediacy/detail, and somewhat dynamically limited. Also, they are not the easiest speakers to drive. The InnerSound Eros will play much louder and more dynamically, and has a greater sense of incisiveness, immediacy, and transparency. The two are not in the same league in my view. Downside to the Eros is mainly the head-in-the-vice syndrome due to the marked high-frequency beaming. I didn't realize how much it bothered me until I switched to other speakers.

For the criteria you have set, I think your best bets would be ribbon-hybrid models from VMPS or Newform Research. Selah Audio seems to have some interesting line arrays too, but I have not auditioned them so I can't comment with any certainty on those.

Happy Listening and Happy Holidays!

I agree with the substance of Plato's remarks about the VIIIa's, but maybe don't downgrade them as much. He says they lack immediacy and detail; I ask compared to what? It seemed true for me that the VIIIa's rolled off at the high end, and so were softer than a lot of speakers. The broad midrange had plenty of detail for me.

The Monsoon computer speakers are considerably less good than the VIIIa's, so that tells me something about the requirements of the situation. The good vmps are more expensive than this price range, unless you go for the ribbon monitors, the Newforms don't have the low end of VIIIa's, and the Selah line array is more expensive than $1500, I am pretty sure.

If you don't like the looks of the ET, you might consider the upcoming, less brutal looking Status Mini from av123.com. It's a hybrid arrangement. Will go a bit lower than the Newforms, reportedly, but won't go to really high spls or so low as the ET. You might have trouble knowing where to look for info on this product, so you might want to call them.

High-frequency extension and speed is what gives many midrange instruments the ability to sound like they do in real life. Without it, you have a pleasing, more rounded, but less authentic sound. The sound of the instruments with upper-frequency harmonics (most of them) gets diluted and smoothed over. That is what I meant when I said the LFT-VIII is not as detailed or immediate sounding. It does seem a bit rolled-off in the upper octaves and if you put it in it's extended-treble mode it then becomes too aggressive/bright-sounding for my taste.