Paul McGowan gets asked about rotary subs.

Not a problem @arion, at least for me. Yep, for dipole loudspeakers (of which most OB loudspeakers are) dipole woofers ARE are the way to go. And I complete agree with your calling drivers which reproduce "only" down to 20Hz woofers, not subwoofers. Separate enclosure with driver(s) became known as subwoofers because most "full" range loudspeakers are of course nothing of the sort. Since those speakers have woofers, what should the industry call a product which reproduces very-low frequencies, those below what the speaker's own woofers can't reproduce? Why subwoofers, of course!

@tomic601: Hey there Jim! Yep, I heard the Vandersteen subs many times over the years at Brooks Berdan Ltd., one of Richard's first and best dealers (he sold a LOT of Model's 2 and 3). When Brooks decided to not sell Richard's new higher-priced models (beginning with the Model 5, I believe) I knew he was making a big mistake. That was not acceptable to Richard, and Brooks was no longer a Vandersteen dealer. Brooks, you fool! ;-).

Brooks wanted to sell his customers (and potential customers) who were looking for higher-priced loudspeakers Wilsons, not Vandersteens. Why not offer your customers the choice of both? The more product you sell of one company, the better wholesale price you get, hence more profit. I sat in on a meeting Brooks took with Wilson's head of sales at CES, and witnessed how dealers are pressured to sell more product. It wasn't pretty.

I have a pair of the LFT-8bs. When I look at them I see terrible build quality. Stuff is poorly welded together. The frame isn’t sturdy (you can move it with your hands). The legs are screwed directly into the woofer box without pilot holes or any housing for the screw to go into. The ribbons look like they’re wrinkly all over (my Apogees, also known for poor build quality back in the day, are a thousand times more solidly built). I also eventually stuffed a piece of Kleenex behind one section of ribbon because I heard it rattling back there. It worked!

But holy hell do these ETs sound great. I kid you not when I say they rival the best sounding speakers out there at audio shows. I don’t get it, but Thigpen is a master magician.

I plan to build a new walnut outer trim for them since the ones that came with the speaker are poorly put together.

I wouldn’t trade these for a pair of Wilson’s right now. Mainly because I know I’d lose something with the sound.

I do have them paired with an old 400 watts/ch Krell amp. Thigpen recommends no more than 200 watts per channel and I tried that but this 400 watt Krell allows these speakers to absolutely sing.

The ribbons are magic. The bass is tighter than anything decent I’ve heard at audio shows. Yet the woofers and the box they come in look like they were made from old pizza boxes. Okay, maybe exaggerating a bit on the poor build quality.

I was at one point considering buying 3-way YG Acoustics speakers, but these sound so absolutely perfect that I don’t want to jinx it.

I don’t even have them spiked into the carpet- at this point I’m afraid to touch them or experiment with them in some other position or even upgrade them to the new woofers because I can’t risk losing this beautiful experience.

I think electrostats never caught on for a couple of reasons:

They had a tendency to arc if over-driven.  I believe this has been largely solved. 

They also have to be plugged in.  Neither of these are problems with Magneplanars. Although there are SQ differences between the 2 designs, there's enough similarities that Maggies won the marketplace and electrostats got an even smaller wedge of the market.  Quads remain the most famous of the electrostats, but my guess is that Martin Logan has the most units sold.

FWIW, the low note on a concert grand piano is ~28 hz, with extended range pianos going down to 16, and at least 1 pipe organ to 8 hz!

@sandpat:

1- To get rid of the wrinkles you adjust the LFT driver tensioning mechanism.

2- I take it you don’t have the speakers mounted on the stands made by Sound Anchors specifically for the LFT-8b? Get a pair, they’re pretty cheap!

3- Grant Mye has made his stands for the LFT-8. It includes support arms which extend from their base all the way to the top of the LFT panels. That provides increased structural stiffness and improved sound quality. By the way, the MDF frames of Maggies are even less stiff than the LFT panel of the ET’s. That’s a penalty you pay with a planar loudspeaker.

@bdp24 thanks! I’ve read that in the user manual but I’ve just been afraid to mess with it. Really I need some time to adjust and listen, rinse and repeat. But they sound so wonderful even in their flawed state!

I do have the sound anchor stands- these are the large heavy thick metal legs that Thigpen recommends for his speakers, correct? I have them but they were a pain to screw into the woofer box- felt like I was probably causing some sort of new resonance due to the screws sticking out inside the box. My biggest worry though is that I’ll lose a nail and fracture my little toe on them. One of the speakers sits right in the path of my listening room door and I’ve accidentally caught my pinkie toe on it multiple times. The pain is awful. I’ve been on the search for some sort of rubbery material I can place over them to prevent losing a toe someday.

On the subjection of tensioning the ribbons on the panels- do you have any literature on how to go about it the right way? I don’t want to just be loosening/tightening hex screws without knowing what I need to be adjusting first.

Thanks for the tips! I can’t imagine these speakers sounding any better but there it is… something for me to chew on.