Small room electrostat/ planar speaker?


In about 30 days will be moving to a new home where its going to be hard to make my 1.7 maggies work in a spouse friendly way ( the only large room is the main living room). I've always gravitated to planars and electrostatics, box speakers that don't sound colored or slow usually cost more than my entire system. Where I'd like to end up is a system that's extremely resolving at low to moderate volume levels, my main dissatisfaction with my current Mg 1.7 speakers and Prima Luna amp is that it really doesn't come to life until the volume is moderate listening levels or higher.

I'm wondering if anyone has seen something that approaches the coherency and speed of the 1.7s that would work in an 11x12 listening room? I'd like to keep the cost limited to $4k if possible.
128x128davide256

Showing 5 responses by aniwolfe

I have the perfect speaker for you :)

Eminent Technology LFT 16
Many reviews to check out.
http://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/eminent-technology-lft-16-loudspeaker

I have the Primaluna Dialogue Prem Int and use the bigger brother LFT 8’s and it sounds unbelievable.
I listen at lower to med levels also.

One other thing to consider about the Eminent vs the Maggies. The Eminents do not go below 7-8 ohms. Its a much easier load for your amp. Eminents love Volts (tubes) rather than Watts. So that’s a huge consideration vs something like a Maggie in your situation. You want a speaker that react great to tube amps...especially lower powered ones..
@yyzsantabarbara

Well the ET’s in my experience sounded best with about 3 feet or more behind back of the panel. They do not need an overly dead sounding room to sound good in my experience. Even though they don’t have a very wide horizontal dispersion compared to dome driven speakers. I felt the side walls played a part in channel balance. So if you will need to be careful with that. The way I combated that was, a lot of toe-in.

Also they sound amazing playing Moving Pictures by Rush. Geddy’s bass lines sound so good.
@yyzsantabarbara 

I listen at 55-65db range. One of the reason I got the ET's and not the Maggies.
I bet the ET LFT-16a Planar Magnetic Hybrid Book Self Loudspeaker with a sub, would sound killer.