Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIA Speakers by JRK

Owned these for over two years; one of the best-voiced speakers at any price I've ever heard, and an unquestioned audio bargain. They require a ton of juice (I ran a Melos tube amp 200W per side, and that was minimum), and they are plain ugly with the grills off (why do guys insist on black for all this stuff - is it some kind of macho thing? If so,then why are computers off-white?). Like many planars, they lack the macro dynamics of box speakers (most evident on kick drum and stand-up bass), but the micro dynamics are very good, if not as good as my Merlins. The treble is a tad unextended, and a bit unresolving and "hard" (although I didn't notice this until I substituted Gallo References in my system). So far, I've given you no reason to buy them at all. But if you're in this price range, and you can put up with big black iron things staring at you, there isn't any choice - including the Maggie 1.6. Why?

These things play music. If you love the human voice, planars in general, and this speaker in particular, is just unbeatable. Boxes - even good boxes like my Milleniums - just can't quite pull this off, but the VIIIs can. Bass? Beautifully integrated, if a bit "full," and quite extended with good amplification. Orchestral weight is properly situated in the midbass, without being overblown. Horns are burnished, and stay in the back of the orchestra during loud passages (listen for this - on many speakers, the horns come "over the top" and sit in the laps of the string players - such speakers have greater resolution - i.e., HF energy, but are not necessarily more natural or involving as a result). Staging is good in width, excellent in depth and height. Like many planars, on smaller pieces, the instruments tend to image slightly bigger than they actually are, but I didn't find this annoying at all (hey, if you want to play a big piano in my room, bring it on!).

The crossover points are way down and way up, so all that music in the middle is unaffected by wire and electronics. Two pairs of Edison Price binding posts for biwiring, and good build quality of the speakers themselves, although the cosmetics are not, shall we say, of Avalon quality. For $1,500, where do you want your money spent?

They are a pain to place properly. It took me a year to find the sweet spot - they are very sensitive to room placement, even though planars aren't supposed to be. I found they needed to be well away (like 7 or 8 feet) from the front wall, and needed some moderate amount of absorbtion material (books, etc.) on the front wall to control the back wave.

Corey Kaptyn at Audio Advisor uses these. Actually, because of their dynamic limitations, he uses two pairs of these; one pair per channel. He drives them with a pair of huge VAC amps. Corey is the one who first put me on to these speakers, and I thank him for it. I think AA still sells these, although I haven't seen them advertised lately in their flyer.

I cabled them with Tara Labs Master Gen II. Big mistake; soft top end. You need to voice these with fast cabling (Corey uses Analysis Plus silver biwire, whatever the jiggy tradename is), and big amps, bigger amps, biggest damn amps you can find. This is nothing new; that's what planars thrive on. There are plenty of polished muscle amps these days in the 2k to 3k category; plan on looking in that minimum price range if you want these speakers to sound like anything. Of course, if you want to shop used for all of this stuff, it is (last I checked) still a free country.

Cory Greenberg reviewed these for $pile some years ago (I'm so old, I actually remember a time I thought he was amusing - like that stupid GO NAD! review). Anyway, he liked them, and these were in the $pile "C" category for many years (until, like most things on the list, they were "not auditioned in too long a time" and were summarily dropped).

I have listened extensively to the Maggie 3.6s which do some things better, but over all, I prefer the VIIIs, especially because Maggie bass is still planar bass and is still... ineffably wrong somehow, at least for me. I prefer the hybrid woofer - at least I get some kick in my kickdrum!

If you can let these babies breathe, and feed them lots of good juice, and if you enjoy voice and good jazz and classical (they don't rock - show me a planar that does), you can get out of this audiophile thing on the relative cheap. And when you want to upgrade, you don't have to buy new speakers - just more speakers!! A great audio bargain, and serviced by a company that's been around for years and is great to deal with.

REVIEW: Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIA Speakers Review by JRK at Audio Asylum