Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIA Speakers by David Spear

I've been recommending the Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIA's to various people at this site for several months, so I suppose that it is incumbent upon me to actually review them.

The ETs are hybrid speakers incorporating a push-pull planar-magnetic panel and a dynamic woofer in a sealed enclosure. As you'd expect, the woofer enclosure is at the bottom, putting the woofer very close to the floor (which I think is a good thing because it minimizes floor cancellation effects). Its rear wall is sloped in toward the top to reduce internal resonance modes. I bought the Sound Anchor stands that are designed specifically for the ETs (and are highly recommended). These stands are quite solid. They screw into the bottom of the woofer cabinet and permit the speakers to be firmly spiked to the floor. The planar magnetic panel is a welded steel plate/angle iron assembly that screws into the front of the woofer enclosure with five wood screws. (I don't really care for this design choice -- it works well enough, I suppose, but seems kind of cheesy. Also, the pilot holes for the screws were not perfectly lined up in my speakers, necessitating some work [and swearing] with an awl.) The panel includes a planar-magnetic midrange unit (about 40" X 4") and a thin (10" X 1") planar-magnetic tweeter near the inside edge. Linear magnets are bolted both in front and behind the panels, resulting in a push-pull design (unlike my old [and also current?] Magneplanars, which had magnets only on one side of the panel). Crossover frequencies are 180 Hz and 10 kHz. This means that there is no crossover in the midrange, which I feel contributes to the excellent imaging and resolution of these speakers. Well, enough physical description. Details, pictures, specs, etc. are available at ET's homepage (www.eminent-tech.com).

The most striking aspect of the ET's sound is the open, detailed, and natural-sounding midrange. Voices sound uncannily realistic, and it is easy to pick out individual voices in choral singing. The treble is a bit soft or laid-back, but also very open and liquid. The tweeters never spit or screech. The bass is satisfyingly deep and extended, and is seamlessly integrated with the midrange. In summary, from top to bottom -- smooth and transparent (but slightly laid-back) highs; detailed and amazingly natural midrange; and tight or "fast" (but pretty extended) bass.

Like all panel speakers, the ETs are kind of a chore to position optimally. (It took me ten months to find the ideal positions in my listening room before I finally spiked them to the floor.) However, when you get it right, the imaging is excellent and the soundstage is impressively wide and deep. If you are a "detail freak" like me, the ETs are ideal speakers. Their ability to clearly reproduce subtle temporal, spatial, and textural details is amazing. Even non-audiophile friends notice this immediately, and have made statements to the effect that they had never imagined that there was so much "going on" in the music or that they can hear instruments in their favorite music that they had never known were there. Friends have also asked, in all seriousness, "are these special recordings?"

I started out using the ETs with lower high-end gear (Audiolab, Acurus, Sony ES). As I upgraded my electronics (first to an Accuphase integrated amplifier, and later to an Accuphase CD player, preamp, and power amplifier), the ETs clearly revealed the improvements in the upstream equipment. In addition, upgrading my interconnects and speaker cables (from Kimber PBJ & large-gauge Monitor speaker wire, to Kimber KCAG & 8TC [biwired], and finally to Harmonic Technology single-crystal 7-nines silver interconnects and single-crystal 6-nines copper speaker wires [also biwired]) also led to significant gains in air, transparency, and imaging. Although, in dollar terms, my system may seem to be rather poorly balanced (the cost of the speakers is less than 1/10th that of the electronics, and is actually also less than the cost of the wires I'm using), I do not feel that there is any need to replace the ETs with more expensive speakers. Whenever I get the perverse desire to shop for new speakers, I just put on some of my favorite tunes, get sucked into the music, and forget all about it. I can't think of a higher recommendation.

Well, after all the praise, I guess I should report the areas where I find the ETs to be somewhat lacking. As I mentioned earlier, the treble is a bit laid back, although I have found that this limitation can be completely eliminated by using silver interconnects. The ETs are not the most beautiful speakers in the world, particularly when compared to something like Martin Logans. I play them with the grills removed, and they do look quite industrial. A friend charitably called them "high-tech looking", but I'm afraid he was just being kind. Build quality could also be a bit better -- the wood screws are a pretty big turn-off for me. They also require lots of clean power. Their sensitivity is 83 dB, and I found the 170-WPC integrated amp that I was using before to be a tad too small (think 250 WPC or so). They are, however, an easy-to-drive 8 ohms across the entire frequency range, without any big impedance dips or peaks. Finally, they are a pain to position, and are quite revealing of any limitations in upstream equipment.

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