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

@bdp24 Could you elaborate on the Mye stands? I wrote to Grant last month. He did not have any visuals of the LFT stands. From his descriptions, they clip onto the panels at the mid point of the tweeter, and screwed to the sides of the woofer units. They work  together with the Sound Anchor stands, correct?

From what I understand, they prevent the front to back swaying  of the panels and thereby increase image stability. 

Amen @kot! The value of the LFT-8 was my motive for bringing them to the attention of Audiogon members. For he who questions the varacity of the opinion of Steve Guttenberg (and/or Robert E. Greene, as well as a number of UK hi-fi critics), you're missing the point. You needn't consider his (and their) stated opinion(s) as fact, but merely as evidence that a consideration of the speaker might be of interest and/or benefit.

As for all of Guttenberg's reviews being positive.....both he and his pal Herb Reichert have stated that there are so many good components they want to bring to the attention of audiophiles, they are not going to waste our time on bad ones. If you find that a specious argument, fine, ignore them. Your loss!   

@bdp24

Actually Robert Greene’s review in the TAS was fairly thorough and critical in his assessment of the LFT 8. I disagreed with some of his points, but overall he is a very well respected (at least by myself) reviewer from the good old days of The Absolute Sound, when HP ruled the ship.

HI-FI World UK also did a very good review of the LFT 8. Worth seeking out and reading it by  prospective customers, and  by "the just curious" types :).  

How is the sweet spot compared to Magnepan? With Magnepan it's too small for me with the tonal balance shifts. 

I have had a pair of LFT8b speakers for over 3 years and recently updated them to the LFT8c versions with the DSP bipole woofers.

The panels are welded up and assembled in Florida, not China. I don’t know if the ribbons are made in the US or not, but remember - this until recently was a $2,500 pair of speakers with superb sound quality.

We had a problem with buzzing in the right side midrange ribbon, and Bruce sent two offset cams to better adjust them. Eventually, the buzzing returned, so he had a brand new panel (welded steel frame that holds the neodynium magnets and ribbon assembly) made and shipped to me at no charge since the problem surfaced while under warranty.

Last year I blew out the tweeter ribbons accidentally when hooking up a new electronic crossover incorrectly, and Bruce sent me new ribbons and some tweeter fuses and fuse holders at no charge (I replaced them myself). His customer service is excellent and he has always been prompt to reply with answers and solutions.

The speakers are hand-made, and the fit and finish do reflect that, as well as the very low price for the performance. Meaning, they aren’t perfect, but they are very attractive and mostly well-built. I’d prefer some refinements, particularly in the wood trim and metal threaded inserts in the woofer boxes for the panel attachments, though the new 8c woofer cabinets have a nicer, more refined look and finish than the original.

I don’t think these are the best speakers for the listener who doesn’t have some mechanical/technical abilities, because they do require assembly and over time, the ribbons are likely to need small adjustments as the material stretches or shifts in the panels.

The sound quality is excellent and well above the price range, in my opinion. I’ve listened to some very expensive speakers at our local shop, including Maggies, and these are better than many/most of them, and better than my MTM+subwoofer Seas Prestige-loaded box speakers. The efficiency is not a problem for any of our amps, including a 100wpc Mark Levinson, several 200-250 wpc high-quality amps we also have, and our 125wpc KT120 tube monoblocks. There is no problem driving the speakers with the tube amps, and the volume level is almost as high as with the more powerful SS amps.

For my tastes, the 8b didn’t have enough tight, low bass (though it was never flabby, just lacked power and dynamics to our preference), so I supplemented them with subwoofers with SEAS drivers, which I found to integrate nicely with the LFTs. After updating to the 8c, I used them as intended by feeding the preamp into the DSP amps, then splitting the processed signal to the amps. Even with the various settings for phasing, etc. of the rear-firing woofer, I didn’t feel the bass was quite up to what I was used to, so the subs went back into service, but adjusted for frequency and volume.

After a month or so, I decided that the sound of our amps without the DSP was more appealing to me, so I hooked up our active crossover and now the system feeds the low frequencies into the DSP amps and dipole woofers, and the mids/highs to the amps, which I feel handle those frequencies with more clarity. I can still adjust the DSP for woofer response, but choose to let my nice quality amps provide an analog signal instead of going through the DSP amps.

The speakers are in a fairly large room but with plenty of clutter. They are toed in a bit so we have a sweet spot for listening, but the sound coverage is much better than my 40" tall box speakers. The ribbons are tall, so the vertical coverage is great.

Do doubt there are better speakers, but not for the price as far as I have found. Not sure what I’d have to spend to get better sound, but judging these without hearing them properly set up, or assuming that because the efficiency is fairly low they require a lot of power would be an error.