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

@ricevs: Yeah Ric, in one of his YouTube videos Danny Richie speaks about New Record Day Ron having found the Sapphire to produce "faster" bass than the Rythmik/GRR OB Sub (just for the record, Ron's opinion carries little weight with me). Danny contacted Ron to find out what the heck was going on, as in Danny's opinion that was most unlikely.

Turns out Ron was running the Rythmik/GRR OB Sub with its' Extension Filter Damping control set to "Low". With the 3-position Damping control knob set to "Hi" (Q= 0.7 Bessel filter), or even "Mid" (Q= 1.07 Chebyshev filter),  the OB Sub produces considerably tighter bass, at the expense of reduced output. 

2 years ago Ron at New Record Day stated the Spatial M3 Sapphires with their passive bass woofs were "faster" than Danny’s servos......he compared them several times. He talks about this starting at 28 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFQKGaxfIJk

The servo subs are great.....but they are not state of the art. The guy at GT Audio was using the servo subs and is now using Acoustic Elegance woofers in his H-frames.

https://www.gtaudioworks.com/

The servo subs also cannot play that high and have limited tunability. Using a xover/amp you can set the xover anywhere you like with the AE woofs and equalize to your hearts content and get rid of all bass nodes.

Please read this review on the Kryon speaker using AE woofs.....the guy said it was the best bass he ever heard in his room. Of course, you need to make a serious baffle and brace it well. Kryon uses the AE woofs in all their open baffle designs including the monster one without any baffles.

https://6moons.com/audioreviews2/kyron/1.html

https://kyronaudio.com.au/gaia.html

Joe Cohen of the Lotus Group designed the two Granada speakers shown here (using the same AE woofs).....way over 12 years ago. You can search for reviews.....they were loved. Don’t know if any were sold.

https://www.lotusgroupusa.com/granada-loudspeaker.html

Turns out that the problem may have been the Khozmo passive preamp… I switched to my Precision Fidelity C7 tube pre and output seem to be the same in both channels. Will be doing some measuring as soon as I can borrow a 0hm meter from a friend-:)

So Ric (@ricevs), you’re no longer a fan of the GR Research/Rythmik Audio OB/Dipole Sub? That too can be used in place of the stock LFT-8b woofer.

The 2-woofer version of the OB Sub kit is available from Rythmik for $999, and from GR Research with the required OB H-frame (in flat pack form) for $1660. Both prices for one sub, two required of course.

If you can build your own H-frame (or the smaller W-frame), a pair of the OB Sub kits will run you $1998, about $400 more than the pair of LFT-8c woofers. The difference between the two is the Rythmik/GRR is an open baffle version of a dipole sub---with two 12" woofers, and the LFT-8c has a front-firing 8" woofer and a rear-firing 6.5"---in a sealed enclosure. Both are powered, the LFT providing DSP not included in the OB SUB. But the Rythmik plate amp does provide all the controls necessary to mate the OB Sub with the LFT-8b planar panel.

I am a super freak.....er....I mean..super tweak....he he.

You REALLY WANT to upgrade ALL the crossover parts, jacks and wiring in these things.......The speaker posts, caps, wiring and coils are NOT serious stuff. Change the posts to Nextgen WBTs.....change the caps to best Clarity, Mundorf, V-Cap, Jupiter copper, other copper caps, etc....bypass with smaller values for more speed and clarity. Make sure you put the outer foil of the cap to ground or to the load (speaker). Change all coils to copper foil wax paper 12 gauge Jantzen coils. Make sure you go "into" the inner winding of the coil....and "out" the outer winding. Change the wires to VH Audio, Neotech Litz or other great wires. If there are any resistors in the xover then change them to Path Audio resistors or the latest Mundorf’s....or power Caddock’s bypassed by a nude Vishay. The difference will blow your mind.

I would not use the DSP in the C version on the panels......just for the woofs. I personally would get the B version and make a baffle next to the speaker and use a couple of 12 inch Acoustic Elegance dipole drivers on an open baffle......and then get a separate crossover/amp to drive them. These are the same drivers used in the $120K open framed IO speakers from Italy that Jason of AudioJunkie fame went crazy over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqueX42qRf0&t=163s

@harryz: have you tried disconnecting the woofers and just evaluating the volume from the mid/treble panel? How about vice-versa? Are the impedances equal, R-L? And I assume you've swapped speaker cables R-L and the 3dB drop is still present on the same side? Last, have you panned the balance R-L and found the same imbalance?

Thanks ledoux1238-

I don’t have the 8C woofers yet; it will be about six weeks. I’m pretty certain it’s the speakers because I’ve checked everything else and I’ve tried various sources. I’m playing my quad ESLs now with no issue. I’m going to measure the output and impedance of the 8Bs to see what’s going on.

Overall, I prefer the 8B to the Quads but it’s pretty damn close-:) They both do different things really well but the 8Bs are more dynamic and more full range. And still, it’s hard to find fault with the Quad’s naturalness and glorious midrange…

@harryz Hi Harry, just a reminder that the cable compliment is very different between the 8b and 8c. In the 8c, it is a set of line level cables from preamp out to the DSP / woofer  units, then another set of line level cables from the woofers to your amps, and finally speaker cables from amps back to the speakers. The amps only drives the mid range panels and the tweeters. And all signals go through A-D and D-A conversion before it goes to your amp. 

Regarding the 3 db differential in your speaker output, if you are dealing with vinyl playback, then I'd check azimuth. If not analog, I would still check the output of digital source component. My vintage Wadia CDP experienced a L-R imbalance which got fixed.

Tomorrow or Friday I’ll try my quicksilver amps and precision fidelity C7 which has dual mono volume. It will be interesting to see how they sound compared to the class D amps…

You’re most welcome Leo. The Starkrimson amps with GaN FET power supplies are great.

Eric and others-

It seems that one of my LFTs is about 3-D be louder than the other. I’ve tried swapping amps, cables and all the usual stuff. My room tends to lean slightly left (it must know my politics-:) but it tends to sound like everything is coming out of the left channel now when I’m off axis. I wrote Bruce and I’m hoping to figure it out, but any suggestions would be welcome. 
 

Damn, you’re right @gktaudio! I have both the LFT-4 and LFT-8b in my room, and use the latter with it’s grill cloth frames in place. The LFT-4 didn’t come with (a) grill frame(s), and it is the LFT-4 which has the LFT driver assembly (containing bass, midrange, and tweeter sections) attached to a solid oak frame. No wonder the LFT-8b is so heavy! Actually, so is the LFT-4. I thought the weight was a result of all those bar magnets ;-) .

@ledoux1238: Yeah, the listeners ears really have to be within the height of the tweeter, that’s how a line-source tweeter behaves. The original version of the LFT-8 had the tweeter strip at the top of the panel rather in the middle, and people were complaining that the high end dropped off when they sat down. In the a or b revision Bruce lowered the tweeter to it’s present location.

But there is a solution to the tweeter being too high with the Townshend Pods in place: put shims under the Pod(s) at the rear of the 8b, which will then point the tweeter down towards your ears. Little blocks of something stiff will do, like birch plywood (painted black). Adjust the height of the rear of the LFT-8 until you get the center of the tweeter to be aimed at the height of your ears. That's how the tweeter pods in the big Wilson speakers are aligned.

@bdp24: So that we are being clear, the LFT8b/c do not have a wood frame. The frame is entirely welded steel. There are narrow strips of wood that screw onto the steel frame, but they add no structural rigidity - that’s all up to the steel frame. The wood is there for appearance (and I wish they were a bit nicer, to be honest).

I can push against our frames (panels) and they flex a little due to the leverage, but there is no such pressure against them at any other time. An earthquake bad enough to cause the panels to bend would bring down the house, so not really sure there would be an advantage to added rigidity. I can MIG, TIG or gas weld my own stands and modifications, but saw no reason to do so. I considered it when I was replacing the panel with the buzzing midrange ribbon with the entire new panel sent by Bruce, but my real interest in future mods was to install threaded inserts into the wood woofer box for the steel panel frame to screw into more securely.

Just heard back from Bruce. The 8C woofers come with brackets to fit the Sound Anchors-:)

Harry

@bdp24 Grant quoted CAD$ 900 for the Mye stands. I initially thought they were quite steep for two structs. Now I understand that it is the entire stand + struct combo. 

Someone on Audiogon posted the use of Townshend Pods  in lieu of the SA spikes to very good results. With both Towshend Pods and the Mye stand, that would take  the LFT 8s' into another level. The only thing i don't like about the Pods is that they raise the speaker several inches. And the alignment of the tweeter and my listening height is rather critical. If a bit off axis, details suffer. 

Right @audiophilejunkey, the LFT-18LS. That was mentioned back on page 1 of this thread, where the same video (which you filmed ;-) is posted as well. But thanks! I followed your build of the NX-Treme on YouTube, which is one reason why I didn't build a pair myself ;-) . Building the OB/Dipole Sub was pretty easy, but the EX-Treme looks to be quite a bit more daunting. Plus, I really like the ET LFT-8b!

Bruce had a prototype new reference in Tampa at the Show back in February.  Plus, don't forget about his propeller sub and guitar speaker...This video shows a bit of those aspects from the Florida International Audio Expo

https://youtu.be/91ybrCypcKk

@gktaudio: Thanks for that info on the 8c. Using the DSP for the woofer only is how I too would run the 8c. I have a First Watt B4 x/o, a nice little unit from the mind of Nelson Pass.

The rational for the struts of the Mye stand is to brace the planar panel, not specifically from vibrations of the woofer enclosure, but just for any flexing of the wood frame of the panel. The struts secure the planar panel onto the stand's base, to which the bass enclosure is also secured. The Mye stand for Maggies features the same struts, which the Maggies really benefit from (those Maggie MDF frames are not nearly as structurally rigid as are the LFT-8 solid wood frames).

As I have described for the benefit of non-LFT owners, the LFT driver has it’s magnets and Mylar diaphragm built into a very stiff metal (aluminum?) frame assembly (which is bolted onto the panel’s wood frame), while Maggies are constructed with the Mylar diaphragm (and magnets?) stapled and glued onto the speaker’s MDF frame, far inferior to the construction of the LFT-8.

By the way, though the 8c’s bass system is a dipole, it is of course not an OB. Though an open baffle dipole woofer has it’s own challenges, it also has rewards unique to it. The GR Research/Rythmik Audio OB/Dipole Sub costs a little more than the 8c bass system, but offers those rewards. An interesting alternative, at any rate.

@bdp24: No, the 8c is not as long, front to back. The width and height are the same, but the terminal blocks have been moved and one sits where the rear grillcloth frame rests, so I my rear grill sits up about 1/8" higher than with the 8b woofer cabinet. 

I like the dipole woofer, but don't use the DSP for the mids/highs, as I explained previously - my signal is split into an active crossover (Bryston 10B).

Regarding the Sound Anchor stands, I think I've missed why there is an interest in modifying it with additional struts. They are very stable as-is - is there a concern about small vibrations from the woofer box?

@harryz: I too wondered if the woofer enclosure of the 8c has the same footprint as does the 8b. The rear of the 8b woofer enclosure is sloped, the 8c not. Perhaps both enclosures have the same bottom dimension, the 8c just having a square shape, for greater internal volume. A call to Thigpen would get the answer to that question.

For those who don't want the 8c (with it's digital processing), but like the idea of a dipole woofer, a separate dipole woofer can be used in place of the stock monopole 8b woofer. For those interested and not adverse to a little DIY, look into the OB/Dipole Sub offered by GR Research in conjunction with Rythmik Audio. It's sold as a kit, but is not much harder to build than an IKEA dresser (I assembled one for my sister ;-) .

@harryz thanks for the shoutout.

Thanks Eric. Following your idea of fabricating something, I’m wondering if it would be possible to weld in a rod diagonally on each back leg of the Sound Anchors. There’s got to be a way to mod the stand. 
 

I forgot to ask Bruce if the 8C woofers will screw onto the SA stands. I hope so-:)

@harryz: Nope Harry; I'm a huge procrastinator. ;-)

My correspondence regarding the Mye stand for the LFT-8 was with a swell guy named Scott (I'll keep his last name private, as he may not want it made public). He contacted me after seeing my posting on the LFT a coupla years ago, telling me about the Mye stand. He told me the stand made a noticeable improvement in the sound of the LFT, well worth the cost of a pair.

I gave Grant Mye a call, and he said sure he'd make me a pair, to send him the locations/dimensions of the mounting holes in the bottom of the speaker. The mounting holes in the Mye stand will presumably be the same as that in the Sound Anchor, but a measurement is of course a good idea.

The stand isn't pictured on the Mye website, and neither is the stand Grant makes for the Quad ESL, which looks incredible (he sent me a pic). It is also not included in the Mye price list, so I don't know what the current price is.

Hey Eric-

Did you replace the Sound Anchors with the Mye stands? I thought I had read that you had…

Harry Z

Oops: that should have read 1.5" wide, not 1/5".

Thanks Ledoux1238-

I imagine that the 8B is great with higher power tubes amps and I’ve experience some magic with my lower powered ones, but I prefer the Starkrimson amps. They just seem to work better with my associated gear in my room. As I noted, I’ve never had sound like this, even with wonderful horn speakers and original quads.

I bet that the 18s are magnificent and I’d love to hear them someday. I’m certain that they will be too big and too much speaker for my room.   Bruce has already responded and I’m going to order the upgraded woofers. 
 

Harry

@harryz Just looked up the Starkrimson Amps, 500W class D, very interesting! I believe you will be happy with the 8C, unless you want to hold off until the LFT 18s' are released. 

There are folks here with tube amps from Music Ref. - 100w @bdp24 and @chowkwan with 400W Manleys.  I have a pair of Von Gaylord Nirvana 100 W with 8 Tung Sol 6550s'. However, I really like the LFT 8C with a 20W Mactone MH-300b, a little known Japanese amp with 300Bs' in Push-Pull configuration. It is harmonically richer, with better bass and slightly wider / deeper soundstage. A 20W tube amp would be quite comfortable driving the LFT 8Bs', and most definitely 8Cs'. I think Manley makes a pair of 300b monos' that can be switched into a 20W P-P or a 10W SE mode. in my estimation,  that would be a good fit with the ET. I guess I am the low power advocate for the ETs'.

Today I took delivery of a pair of Orchard Audio Starkrimson GaN mono amps. They are Class D analog switching amplifiers with outboard power supplies. 
I bought them from the owner of ArgentPur cables, a nice fellow named Ernie Meunier. They came with a short run of silver speaker cable wired to each amp manual. The Starkrimson monos were the TAS Budget product of the year in 2021. I can see why; more aptly, I can hear why. 
 

 I’ve generally been a tube guy over the past 25 years, but I’ve never owned a high power tube amp nor tried any with LFTs (I became a dealer aroun2004 or so).  I should have; my QS EL34 monos are underpowered at 35wpc into 8 ohms.  And so is my Pass Aleph 30 and it’s gain and input sensitivity are low and I use a Khozmo passive balanced pre. The Orchards are balanced only and my Sim Moon LP5.3 phono stage and Soekris DAC 1541 are also balanced with SE  option. I also have both original Quads and ESL 63s in lovely condition. To my ears, the 8B beats them in my room with these amps. They are utterly liquid, natural, dynamic, spacious and  resolving. So beautifully balanced and relaxed that I can listen all day.  I don’t want for anything else; they have the virtues of nice tube amplifiers and none of the problems plaguing so many solid-state devices I’ve heard over the years, such as dryness, brightness or any hardness or other artifacts.

All that remains is to get the 8C upgrade. I’ve already sent Bruce an email-:)

That’s a great idea Albert. From the pics it appears the only difference between the Sound Anchors base and the Mye stand are the struts. I had thought of cutting some 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood into appropriate length strips (maybe 1/5" wide), screwing two of those homemade struts onto the top of the bass enclosure and back of the planar panel (at each top corner). Not elegant, but then I’m not an elegant guy. ;-)

I too am mystified by the low profile of the LFT-8b. Everybody knows about Maggies, very few about the Eminent Technology speaker. Of course ET having only five U.S.A. dealers and not advertising doesn’t help! I was lucking in having a great dealer who actually had a pair of LFT-8’s in his listening room.

Brooks Berdan was one of ET’s biggest dealers, installing a LOT of ET arms on Oracle, VPI, and SOTA tables. Brooks was also a Music Reference dealer, and the RM-9 Mk.2 and RM-200 Mk.2 amps work splendidly with the LFT-8. Both tube amps, 125w/ch and 100w/ch respectively. Unlike the 3-4 ohm Maggies, high current not needed.

@bdp24 Eric, thanks for the photos. I would like to keep the SA stands, so I may end up fabricating a set of struts with a local metal worker.

@chowkwan Very impressive set and twin LFT 8a's! What is a ' Super Lumi ' phono?

It is clear that LFT 8's suffer from a lack of brand identity and a lot of disinformation. Some of the un-truths have been floating around for ages, and despite continuous attempts to correct, still persist. Refuting  some of the un-truths : They are made in the US of A; they are tube amp friendly, 20 W min; they have a wide and deep enough sweet spot; .......etc

What I don't understand is this: The ET 2 linear tonearm from the same brand enjoys a very healthy reputation and respect. A thread here on Audiogon on the ET arm has over a million views. However, the speaker from Eminent Technology seemed consistently under-rated. Is the speaker world much more competitive with many more choices? Did the ET arm established itself  in an era of less good tonearms , and hence garnered good reviews and established a fan base  early?

Okay Albert (@ledoux1238), two pics sent---Eric.

For others interested, the Mye LFT-8 stand looks just like the Sound Anchor bases (including the two front "legs" which extend out from the bass enclosure), with the addition of support arms (I believe Grant Mye calls them "struts") that are attached to the back corners of the stand and reach up to the side rails, right at the middle of the tweeter’s length. The two arms clamp onto the side rails just as seen in the Mye stands for Maggies.

I suppose one could just add support arms to the Sound Anchor bases, but it would take some fabricating ability and tools.

@dynamiclinearity ​​@bdp24 - as @mijostyn pointed out, the SPL dropoff with distance has nothing to do with the speakers being planars or dipoles.  

Line source speakers produce a cylindrical wavefront (whether they are dipoles or not), which has an SPL falloff of 3db with each doubling of distance. A point source speaker (most conventional speakers) produces a spherical wavefront which reduces SPL by 6db with doubling distance. 

This is why you'll see a stack of speakers on stage for large rock concerts, creating an effective line array so that the audience sitting close to the stage doesn't get totally blasted out when the sound is loud enough for the audience in the rear. 

Using a dipole sub vs a conventional sub isn't going to affect the SPL falloff in the bass, but since the wavelengths are so long, the sound pressure at any point in the room is affected as much by room modes as anything else. 

That said, I do prefer the sound quality from dipole subs (for music). I think they sound more natural and integrate more seamlessly with dipole main speakers. 

To the imbecile above who commented they are Made in China on the fact that  they’re cheap, and without doing any research whatsoever, I hate to burst your bubble.

Thigpen builds them in Florida. I have a pair of LFT-8b’s and they say ‘Made in the United States’ right on the label.

Image: https://imgpile.com/i/9X7Kzh

@mirolab, that single file seating sounds like the Sanders electrostatic speaker set up.  I've seen it at multiple audio shows.  It doesn't appeal to me either.

Now I don't remember ever seeing ET speakers at an audio show.  But all the photos or videos, including in this post, that I've seen show regular rows of seating with ET speaker demos.

Nothing above a transistor amplifier and for maggies is this the most important thing. How is it possible that people are using subwoofers for the mg20 and the 3.7 totally nuts. The most clear instrumental bass is with the maggies also the 1.7i. the amp is the most important thing with magnepan. I used first conrad johnson and later i changed it for the cello performance. And a friend of mine the cello duet and that was the moment no more tubes.

Point of clarification on woofer replacement:

Since I’m using subs, I don’t need the low bass extension of the LFT’s woofer which is obtained by mass loading.

Bruce did a superb job with original Usher, lowering the free air -6dB to 15.3Hz

See Measuring Loudspeaker Driver Parameters (sound-au.com) for more info on measuring driver parameters

The Dayton RS225-8 functions more like a upper-bass / low mid driver in my system.

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/7309

Manley 440 (monoblocks) with Genuine Gold Lion KT77’s set to triode mode 275 watts into the panels.

Manley 440 with 6550’s set to tetrode mode 440 watts into the woofers.

The whole room is a sweet spot. Move around and the musicians remain in position completely stationary. With 1/2 inch Studer A80, it is the sound of live.

People say you cannot reproduce the experience of an orchestra. This system says otherwise. The side and back walls disappear. You are in the Musikverein listening to Der Phil.  

Loud enough for Mayberry’s finest to pay a visit at 4 in the AM.

Richter conducting Bach’s Mass in B Minor: ethereal.

Mehta conducting Holst’s Planets on Mars: invasion.

Weather Report Boogie Woogie Waltz. Boogie ON!

* Benz Gullwing in ET 2 arm mounted in Oracle 6. Super Lumi phono stage.

@bdp24 Just PM my email to you. Thanks!

I've heard the ET's at a few shows, and he's had several chairs in a single file line between the speakers, all perfectly in the sweet spot.  This tells me everything i need to know.... they have a super narrow sweet spot.  They sound amazing there,  and they sound dull everywhere else.  Sorry, but that's not for me.  I need speakers that sound good all around the room, and around the house.

IN that sweet spot, however, they rank amongst the best I've ever heard. 

@ledoux1238: From what my correspondent told me, the Mye stand bolts onto the bottom of the woofer enclosure, the support arms reaching from the back of the base of the stand up to about the middle of the planar panel (similar to the Mye Maggie stands). The Sound Anchor stand is not used at all.

I need to go back through my emails and find the pics of his Mye stands my correspondent sent me. Send me your email address and I will forward them to you (give me a few days ;-).

I spoke with Grand Mye, and he told me he had made only the one pair of LFT-8 stands, those my correspondent ordered. Grant asked me to send the details on bolt hole locations on the bottom of the bass enclosure when I was ready to go ahead with an order. The stand is hollow tubes, which can be filled with sand.

My correspondent told me the Mye stand improves the sound of the LFT-8 in terms of low level resolution and details, overall clarity. Because the LFT-8’s planar panel is attached to the bass enclosure, it doesn’t "sway" as much as do unbraced Maggie panels. But the LFT planar panel is about 3-1/2' long, so it may exhibit a little flexing.

The LFT (Linear Field Transducer) driver has the Mylar diaphragm attached to a very stiff metal frame, to which the fore-and-aft magnets are also attached, that frame bolted onto a solid wood frame. Maggies are constructed with the Mylar glued and stapled directly onto an MDF frame. I don’t remember how the magnets are secured to the MDF.

The way ours are set up, the sweet spot is actually about 2' wide and 6-7' long. Our couch is closes to the speakers, and our dining room table is inline with the centerline of the converged speaker output. My wife can sit inline on one side and I on the other, and we are still in the sweet spot for great frequency response. 

The same is true whether sitting or standing within that roughly 2' wide path.

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.

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

@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 :).  

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 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. 

@bdp24

My LFT 6 are something else: custom wired with Cardas wire, and with Mundorf caps & other exotic parts in their crossover done at the time of production at the factory! The only pair like these in the world! Just extraordinary!!! Had to pay an arm and leg for these! But worth it! Having said that I have to reiterate: LFT 8 are awesome too! Amazing speakers and absurdly great value compared  to todays insane hi fi prices!

@kot: I’m green with envy! I for awhile unsuccessfully attempted to get myself a pair of the LFT-6. I was however able to find a pair of the smaller LFT-4. Interestingly, the LFT-4 has sloped "side wings", a technique for tailoring the tonal balance of the speaker’s output (the wings prevent dipole cancellation, the frequencies of which are determined by the dimensions of the wings), which Danny Richie also employs in some of his GR Research open baffle loudspeakers. The LFT-3, -4, and -6 are rather rare, Bruce Thigpen having made only a few hundred pair of each.

By the way everyone, Grant Mye will make you stands for the LFT-8, with support arms that extent up to the top half of the planar panels. I have heard from one LFT-8 owner who got a pair, and he found the Mye stands to provide a worthwhile improvement over the Sound Anchor bases. I’m gonna get myself a pair, soon as I sell my ARC line stage.

I’m definitely interested in these speakers but I’ll have to wait for a bigger model with more output. My seating distance is around 4.5m.These have a max spl of 105db at 1m. That would mean a max spl in the low 90’s at my listening position.

Edit: I just realized that 105db may be per speaker , if so max spl would be in the mid 90’s

Edit: I just read that planars only drop 3db so that would mean around 100db max spl at my seat. 

The Sound Anchor custom made heavy gauge steel speaker stands improve the sound of 8b substantially, especially in areas of imaging! Almost essential!

Better the amp & front end the 8bs wont be the limiting link in the system. You do need an amplifier with good power supply, high current if used in medium size room If used with REL reference subs arrays , the 8b will compete to any speakers at any price.

I was able to find and purchase long out of production custom edition big LFT 6s, and these go almost full range, but require nuclear plant level of power to really shine.... After these LFT 6s , most other speakers sound like carbon copy of music. 8bs come pretty close, having owned them both at the same time.

@ledoux1238 

Bruce first mentioned the new panels in April 2022.

We bought a new motorhome in May 2022.

Our heating system died Dec 22nd.

Still on the radar... but since the system is so outstanding, there’s a bit of "Ain’t broke,,, Don’t fix" trepidation.