As he promised, Guttenberg reviews the Eminent Technology LFT-8c.

When Stereophile reviewed the original version it was kind of a disaster...John Atkinson is normally pretty nice about poor measuring speakers but this one just looked broken. A lot of time has passed and my question for Eminent would be how they addressed the super rough response, ringing, and rough spectral decay. 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/eminent-technology-lft-viii-loudspeaker-measurements

@seanheis1: Though reviewer Corey Greenberg loved the LFT-8 ("These are MIGHTY fine speakers, rivaling many well-known models at considerably higher prices. In terms of detail and midrange clarity, they are some of the most impressive speakers I’ve heard at ANY price. The LFT-8’s gave the impression of a very fast, natural-sounding speaker."), John Atkinson’s measurements of it were indeed pretty bad. Measuring a dipole planar loudspeaker is fraught with peril, the measurements not at all correlating with the sound the speaker produces. That’s why Magnepan doesn’t send out their speakers for review.

Something to be aware of: The LFT-8 Greenberg received for reviewed was the original version. Partway trough his evaluation, Bruce Thigpen send him a revised planar panel, which had it’s ribbon tweeter moved from the top of the panel to its’ middle. The LFT-8 then later had three other revisions made---a different woofer, tweeter, and cross-over. With one of the revisions came the 8a nomenclature, another the 8b.

John Atkinson knows how to measure a dipole...but I agree an average Joe would struggle to get the best possible measurement just like they would struggle to get the room and placement just right for that tiny sweet spot...reviewer gatekeeping is pretty severe with family owned hi-fi brands & really anything high end like Wilson/Magico...it's smart business.  

Magnepan measures poorly due to things like phase cancellation and a first order filter...it appears some Eminent speakers do the same and the top model uses DSP for some frequencies...but higher frequency beaming with planar designs can't be fixed.        

There are people that rip out the Magnepan filter & replace it with a DSP crossover to presumably level the response and time align the tweeter and midrange....to great satisfaction based on self-reporting....but to each their own.

This is not to say that one cannot love a speaker that has a highly uneven frequency response and ringing. Zu Audio would not exist if people didn't like what it did...including it's editorialization of the response and masking other frequencies.

Regarding Corey Greenberg, he did note a lack of coherence between the mid and bass panel. Steve Guttenberg noted the same. However, Steve Guttenberg noted an improvement in coherence with the DSP version...not surprising....but then he did mention he didn't like how the DSP changed the sound so he turned DSP off...so who knows...I have heard DSP sound terrible and I have heard DSP that is transparent...all about implementation and the technology used of course.  

My friend has the Lii Audio silver 10s ($1200 the pair) and he says they measure and sound very flat (no lowther shout). You need to seriously burn these drivers in and you CANNOT listen to their binding posts.....remove the binding posts and hardwire your speaker wire to the voice coil wire....its like a completely different speaker.

Of course, the latest 8b would sound and measure way better than the original 8......but modding the heck out of them brings them to another whole level.

Here is another variety of what I described above about getting planar sound on the cheap.  You get a Minidsp Flex (analog version)......use a Fossi amp for the woofs and an Aegir or other inxpensive tube amp or class D amp (another $100 Fossi, for instance)......You use 2 12 inch Beyma 12BR70 woofs ($160 each) on an open baffle and above it you mount 4 Parts express $60 planar drivers in series parallel (woofs in parallel).  WE are talking 94db woofs and 94db line source here!!!  The mini dsp is the xover, the preamp and the DAC all in one.  With both 12 inch woofs being directly driven by an amp and with no inductors in series and with equalization, the bass would kill, (I mean slaughter) the ET speaker.  You cross over around 400 hz to the mini line array planars and you will have sound so good you would die.  You run your wires directly from the two amps to the drivers (voice coil wires on woofs).  The minidsp ($500), wood ($300), wire ($300), 4 woofs ($700) and 8 planars ($550) would be around.$2500 with shipping....plus whatever amps you want (you probably already have an amp for the highs.....some or you have another amp laying around for the bass.  I would lake this anyday over a stock 83db sensitive 8B.  Of course, as I mentioned above a fully tweaked 8b with open baffle bi-amped speaker would be probably better (better planars?).  Alternatively, you could use one 10 inch planar driver from Radian ($660 a pair).....these might be more transparent than the Parts express planars but probably have less horizontal dispersion and way less vertical dispersion.  (If you sit in one spot then the Radians might be the ticket).

@ricevs I'm sure that would be amazing if you were able to get the filters right in the mini DSP. 

Regarding Lii Audio I still wouldn't connect amp directly to driver without passive filter or DSP for baffle step correction...there is no getting around the rising response...having said that, some people love a rising response for the extra presence it brings...just not me.