Planar Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIA Speakers by rkeman

Model:	LFT-VIIIA
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$1500/pair w/o stands
Description:	Hybrid planar magnetic/dynamic speaker
Manufacturer URL:	Eminent Technology
Model Picture:	View

Review by rkeman ( A ) on December 17, 2004 at 12:03:36
IP Address: 12.168.121.2

Add Your Review
for the LFT-VIIIA

The Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIa is a full range speaker based on an 8" sealed woofer and planar-magnetic midrange and high frequency drivers. The speaker is nearly 6' tall on Sound Anchor stands and has a substantial footprint. Given the dipole nature of the LFT-VIIIa, it needs to be placed well out into the room (2 to 4' according to the manufacturer). A very complete description and the well written product manual are available on the Eminent Technology website.
The speaker arrives in three fairly heavy boxes. Two of these contain the panels and grills and the third holds the woofer modules. The panels are attached to the woofer modules using wood screws and pre-drilled holes in the cabinets. It took about 90 minutes to assemble the speakers and mount the Sound Anchor stands. I did everything myself, but a spare set of hands would have made the job a bit easier. A barrier stip with screw terminals on the top of the woofer module accepts the wires from the tweeter and midrange panels. A choice of three tweeter levels (high, mid and low) are available. The stands have three spiked feet that allow the speaker to be slighly raised and tilted.
Initially I placed the LFT-VIIIas where most speakers seem to sound best in the room, about 2' out from the side walls and 4' from the back walls on the short wall of the room. After some listening and measuring, the best presentation was achieved with the speakers 16" from the side walls, 40" from the back wall and toed in toward the 9' distant listening position. The The 1/10th octave room response was a quite remarkable +/- 3 dB from 32 Hz to 13kHz. The midrange was an even flatter +/- 2db from 200Hz to 10 kHz. Response at 20kHz was about -6dB. The woofer seems to produce very little distortion even when driven hard at low frequencies and I gave up before the panels did at higher frequencies. The sesitivity is about 1-2dB less than the Magnpan MG-1.6 and 7dB less than the SEAS Thor so I would estimate it at 82-83dB/watt/m. The impedance of the LFT-VIIIa is stated in the manual as being fairly high and, indeed, the Ayre V-3 runs significantly cooler than with most speakers, even though a fair amount of power is required. Volts and not amps are what this speaker craves.
What about the sound? The rendition of music is smooth and balanced. Details emerge in an effortless manner and better in many respects than the aforementioned Magnepan MG-1.6. The clarity is reminiscent of good headphones, particularly in the midrange. The Gladiator soundtrack has a wealth of recorded detail and very much comes alive on these speakers. The slap of the springs in the left channel bass drum on one cut was produced with amazing accuracy. I first noticed this in the recording using Stax headphones and have been surprised how few loudspeakers can reproduce it without blurring the attack and altering the raspiness of the sound. The highs are very natural and similar to the Magnepan. Dynamics are very good, although the ultimate bass impact is limited by the size of the woofer. A subwoofer is probably not necessary in most instances. The image thrown by the LFT-VIIIa is wide, deep and stable. The height of the image is slightly less than the Magnepan, but instrument placement in the soundfield is ever so slightly more focused. The spoken word is handled very nicely with no chestiness in males or nasal coloration in females - quite important in this age of home theater.
On balance, Eminent Technology has produced a winner with the LFT-VIIIa. It provides a reasonable alternative to similarly priced box speakers and other planar speakers. Is it better than the Magnepan MG-1.6? Well, yes and no. It plays louder with less distortion, but requires even more power to do it. It is slightly more accurate in the midrange, but has somewhat less image height. Both absolutely require aftermarket stands to sound their best (Sound Anchors for the ET and MyeSound for the Maggie) and take up a fair amount of room space. Neither is cheap although the complete package is a bit less for the LFT-VIIIa than the MG-1.6. Do I intend to sell my MG-1.6s and get another pair of LFT-VIIIas? Probably not, because both are great speakers and offer superb value.

Product Weakness: Low sensitivity.
Product Strengths: See-through clarity and spacious imaging.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Ayre V-3
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	None
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Benchmark DAC-1, Theta Data, Panasonic RP-91, Motorola cable box
Speakers:	Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIa
Cables/Interconnects:	DIY and Vampire
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Clasiica and pop
Room Size (LxWxH):	26 x 14 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	Normal furnishings
Time Period/Length of Audition:	Three weeks
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Low sensitivity.
Product Strengths:	See-through clarity and spacious imaging.