Eminent Technology LFT-8c Robert Greene review

@slaw:

Hey Steve, I was pleased to see you are considering the ET LFT-8c as "a final speaker."

I have done exactly that, though I have kept my other speakers as well (QUAD ESL, Magneplanar Tympani T-IVa, ET LFT-IV, ESS Transtatic). Though no speaker is optimum for all types of music (for example the QUAD is not appropriate for Metal), considering your musical taste I consider the ET LFT-8 (any iteration) to be a good candidate.

The single LFT driver is employed to reproduce all frequencies from 180Hz up to 10kHz, with no crossover in that frequency range! The result is that the root note of most strings on an acoustic guitar and all their harmonic overtones are reproduced with the same timbre (correctly pronounced tam-bur, not tim-ber), tonality, color, and physical "density". The same is true of other acoustic instruments such as piano, fiddle, drums & cymbals, upright bass (excluding it’s bottom two octaves), and voices. Great for Singer/Songwriter, Bluegrass, Folk, Country, small scale Classical music, etc. Add a pair of GR Research/Rythmik Audio OB/Dipole Subs and bigger and/or more "aggressive" music may also be listened to at fairly loud SPL

As for your listening room, the common recommended distance for dipoles from the wall behind them is 3’, with 5’ an even better distance. One way to achieve that 3 (or 5) foot distance is to toe-in the LFT-8 so that it’s rear wave is reflected off the side wall rather than the front wall. That increases the distance the rear wave of the speaker travels before it reaches your listening position (the side wall reflection traveling to the front wall, where it is again reflected), thereby increasing the delay in time between the front wave of the speaker and it’s rear wave. You want to get a 5’ total distance, which creates a 10ms delay. That "tricks" the brain into perceiving the front and rear waves as separate sources. Anything less than 10ms is heard as a smearing of the front wave.

Thanks for the post Eric. Pretty sure my room is too small, would still like to hear them.

Going to listen them to the 3rd time at BAT in Temple NH.  First time with vinyl (SOTA w/ SME 309 and Hana) and Classe DR-9 and Schiit Kara.  2nd time with Schiit Tyr and Yggy Singular.  

As a mostly panel guy from '78-'05 and sporadically since I've owned and heard many of them.  The 8c's beat on the Maggies (1, 1.7i, 2, 3.3, 3.7i) in low bass, and mid clarity.  The true ribbon Maggies, Duetta Sigs and Ralls are my favorite tweets and I assumed the ET was - its so bloody good.

The woofer/mid transition is well better than the ML hybrids (SL-3, Vista, Vantage, 9, 11) being at a lower frequecy.

The ET are not head bangers but handle volume better than most of them.  The depth of image I heard on the Tyrs was staggering.  Timbre, stage, placement in stage and lack of IM were also notable.  Given the rising prices these days its astounding they are $5600.  

Found all these posts on placement to be very interesting and seem to agree as far as I delved with what I have heard experimenting with them so far.

@wlamt22  Please post your thoughts on your next audition. I assume you’re planning on picking up a pair. 

I can’t disagree on your thoughts about Maggies.  I went to the Florida and Axpona shows this year and specifically spent time, 2 visits to the Maggy rooms at each show, with the Maggy 1.7i, 1.7x, 2.7i speakers.  I ended up visiting each room twice as I had a hard time believing they sounded..so..meh.  I though maybe it was the recordings, but, they sound how they sound. Very thin and lifeless. Minimal bass.  Really no comparison to the LFT 8b’s I was listening to at the time. I recently upgraded to the 8c and Maggies wouldn’t hold a candle to them. 

With respect to the Ai thing I posted on placement..I should have pared those posts down a bit, but it was pretty exciting at the time...and is still very useful. The key in all those posts boils down to the calibration curve at the end.  Using the curve/plot, anyone can quickly get well down the road toward an optimal setup of their LFTs.  I’m still using about 24 degrees of toe-in for my setup..it’s terrific,  I ran across a large list of great Chesky recording titles yesterday and found them on Qobuz..WOW.   Soo good.. 

@ledoux1238 Nice to hear your power upgrade went so well. Very cool. I'm running the 8c's with a Don Sachs 6Sn7 pre and KT88 power amp, rated at about 65 watts/ch.  No complaints here. This setup can push the 8c's all day long..and sometimes they do. 

I continue to wonder how they'll respond to the McCormack amp when I get it back.  I talked with Pat at McCormack yesterday and he tells me I'm about 30 days out. They're doing a full-boat rebuild of my DNA-1.