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Steve Guttenberg finally reviews the Eminent Technology LFT-8b loudspeaker.

 

Over the past few years I and a number of other owners of the Eminent Technology LFT-8b have on this site extolled the virtues of this under-acknowledged loudspeaker. I myself have encouraged those interested in Magnepans to try and hear the LFT-8 before buying. That is not easy, as ET has only five U.S.A. dealers.

I am a long-time fan of Maggies, having bought my first pair (Tympani T-I) in 1973, my last (Tympani T-IVa) a few years ago. But the Tympani’s need a LOT of room (each 3-panel speaker is slightly over 4’ wide!), which I currently don’t have. So I gave a listen to the MG 1.7i, and didn’t much care for it. As I recounted in a thread here awhile back, I found the 1.7 to sound rather "wispy", lacking in body and tonal density (thank you Art Dudley ;-).

Brooks Berdan was (RIP) a longtime ET dealer, installing a lot the company’s linear-tracking air-bearing arm on Oracle, VPI, and SOTA tables. After Brooks’ passing his wife Sheila took over management of the shop, continuing on as an ET dealer. I knew Brooks was a fan of the LFT-8, and he had very high standards in loudspeakers (his main lines were Vandersteen, Wilson, and Quad). The shop had a used pair of LFT-8’s, so I gave them a listen. They sounded good enough to me to warrant investigate further, so I had Sheila order me a pair, along with the optional (though nearly mandatory) Sound Anchor bases.

I wouldn’t waste your time if I didn’t consider the ET LFT-8b to be just as I have on numerous occasions (too many times for some here) described it: the current best value in all of hi-fi. Hyperbole? Well, you no longer have to take it from just me and the other owners here: Steve Guttenberg finally got around to getting in for review a pair (the LFT-8 has been in production for 33 years!), and here is what he has to say about it. After watching the video, you can read other reviews (in a number of UK mags, and in TAS by Robert E. Greene) on the ET website.

https://youtu.be/Uc5O5T1UHkE

 

 

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Showing 3 responses by audioman58

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,840 posts
 

For the money they are decent but very inefficient even more so when you consider 

most quality amplifiers double their power or close to into 4 ohms .

these speakers are only 83 db efficient at 8 ohms  , needing a pretty power full 

amplifier ,and cannot compete with the 3.7 which has a excellent separate tweeter panel, at 2x the cost though it should be much better.

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,840 posts
 

Not a huge fan of Steve almost everything sounds good , not true 

Eminent  technologies , myself and 2 others I know have had panels go out ,

they are made in China  and found out these cost less then $800 including boxes .

you get what you pay for , you absolutely need a minimum of 150wpc into 8 ohms 

if you don’t want to tax the panels into distortion ,which is the killer of these panels on transients thepower demand can climb many times ,look at the 83 sensitivity.

that’s why you need a minimum of 150 clean power the  Parasound 23A is a good match the 21A much better still with plenty of current on demand . Much better then  tubes especially if you want R&R levels of music over  a long play session .

my friend had a Emotiva and didnot workout too well too much distortion at upper levels. Keep that in mind if you plan on buying them quality counts.

 

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,840 posts
 

That is a fact , just do the Math , U.S labor is 6x more , and look at the industrial look .my uncle has worked for over 10 years in Asia , they build them ,they may do some assembly testing here that is all . Iowned a audio store for a decade.

rule of thumb for speakers and electronics on 90%  , 25% goes into the build including packaging, the rest R&D overhead, and markup , it’s a business.

that’s why the vast majority of low cost items are mfg overseas  it’s all about $$ 

To stay in business!!

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