Eminent Technology LFT-8c Robert Greene review

There are two recent reviews of the LFT-8c that are quite good. Robert Greene's in this issue of TAS as hightlighted by the OP. The other is a thoughtful review by Jules Coleman for Enjoy the Music.com which appered March 2024. 

Regarding placement, I follow the 40-60 rule for planar speakers. Placing the speakers at 40% the length of the room. My room is 30ft x 11.5 ft. I have the speakers 14ft from the front wall, 7 inch to side wall from edges. They fire straight down the line with no toe-in due to my placement method. This is an unusual way of placing speakers but the bass is very precise, soundstage usually beyond the edges of the speakers, and front-back layer / depth is very good. 

One issue I have with all the reviews on the LFT-8c is a lack of discussion on the DSP feature of the 8c. I think this is one of the more 'controversial' aspect of the speaker. The new woofers are in dipole configuration ( 8" front firing and 6" backfiring out of phase ). And it is an active woofer unit employing a Dayton Audio 250W amp with DSP. All signals go through a A-D and D-A conversion in the woofer unit  before it goes to the your amp which drives the tweeter and mid range panels. I love the sound of the speaker and the DSP implementation.  But I say 'controversial' because some long time users of the ET speaker, some here on Audiogon, have express reservations. And I don't understand how a comparatively inexpensive speaker using an even more inexpensive active woofer unit with DSP can sound so good.

@nogaps  I would be very interested to read your comments once the new woofers are installed. 

@ledoux1238  Will do.  My room is very different..er..loft actually, 13 x 16 feet.  Speakers are on the long wall. There’s no wall behind my head, just the balcony rail and a downward sloping ceiling behind me.  It’s not a great room, but after visiting the Florida Audio Show a few days ago, I’m reminded there are much worse rooms and mine actually works pretty well.  I think Greene mentioned the LFTs aren’t for people who like rock concert-level SPLs.  Like most people, I assume, I listen in the 75-85dB range and have occasionally cranked things up into the low 90s dB range, briefly.  The LFTs will blow your hair back if you need them to and still sound great.   

I agree on the lack of discussion on the DSP setup and tuning.  I know some folks would be concerned about the A-D and D-A conversion,  but many of those same guys will tell you to listen to/trust your ears and not numbers. I’m not one to let perfect be the enemy of the great. 

I do agree that the relatively low cost of the LFT-8b/c sounding so good is unusual. But, look at the speaker. It’s primarily function with little form(very pricey cabinet work).  The "cabinet" for the panel is simple wood rail trim. (actually I made a new set out of cherry).  Combine simple finish work with no advertising and low overhead...and much of the bloat in speaker costs disappear. And I know we’re all familiar with very pricey, gorgeous sets of speakers that contain very modest-cost components.  With some exceptions, the higher prices largely go to support everything but the speaker components. Someone needs to pay for Office staff, Sales & Marketing people, Warehouse/Logistics/Transportation staff, Customer Service, the Distributor network, and final Retail Outlet markup. 

I listen to primarily jazz with doses of jazz vocals, chamber music, bluegrass, acoustic blues and female vocals of many sorts tossed in.  My 8b’s sound..glorious.  I expect the 8c’s will be yet another step up.

@gkelly ...after reading Greene’s rather long, descriptive review, it hard not to write in a similar vein.. :)

@decooney Where is your dealer?  I’d love to hear the LFTs with reasonably large tube power.  I recently sent my McCormack DNA-1 out to SMc for a rebuild and it’s likely I’ll be substituting,  or at least attempting to substitute, a Don Sachs Kootenay amp (60 watts) in for power. I don’t expect much..but who knows. The speaker impedance is 8 ohm, but the sensitivity is low. The (original) owner of my speakers  was running them with CJ tube power of around 70 watts I think.  He said it worked fine. He’d already sold the CJ off as he was rebuilding his system (he completely rebuilt new systems every 6-7 years..interesting approach to keeping things..new), so I couldn't hear the original setup. 

Well I've been sniffing around the LFT-8 for years now. This is it. I'm buying a pair!

@jnovak Damn straight!

:)

Good for you!  You'll have fun. 

I would love love love to own a pair of Eminent Technology LFT-8c speakers, but sadly my wife says that they are too big. (She’s said that about every panel speaker I’ve ever mentioned)