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A tale of two systems.
I recently picked up a pair of ET LFT 8Bs. They were cosmetically challenged and wired incorrectly. I corrected the wiring (one woofer was wired out of phase). Some bad Laminate damage on both speaker woofer cabinets. I was able to clean that up. Some of the screws were incorrect and stripped screw holes. Bruce Thigpen supplied the proper screws and I fixed the holes and the speakers are now presentable.
During this time I was also able to commandeer a space in my home for a two channel listening area. It is ~19'x13'x9'. I have, using DIY techniques treated the space fairly well. The vibe is upscale man cave.
In this space I have included 3 sets of vintage electronics 2 transistor and one tube. The intention is to have a half way decent space to test speakers. The RT60 scores and spectogram graphs look quite good above 100hz. The room is not lively at all.
So I hooked up my ET LFT 8Bs to a Mac 2105 C26 combination in this space and have have tested them against a few other speakers (so far) including KEF 103/4, AV123 towers, Mirage OMNI 260 and in each case the 8Bs sound noticeably better. They all have decent soundstage (due to the room I believe) but the tone, scale and delicacy of the LFT 8Bs is head an shoulders above the others.
The source for the music in this room is a WiiM Pro connected optically to a SMSL SU-1 DAC. This is then fed via RCA into a remote controlled switch that allows me to choose which system to play.
So I am quite pleased with the results and spent quite a few hours chillin', groovin' or whatever word you care to use for listening to the system.
But I promised a tale of two systems.
In my living room (15'x25'x9') I have a multichannel system (Main System) I use for both HT and 2 channel listening. Over the years I have spent a fair amount of time & energy getting it to sound good.It is configured thusly; (I am only including what I use for two channel) I have not "treated" the living room, but I have made specific choices in furnishing and decorations which make the room a bit more lively but still tamed most of the reflections.
WiiM Pro connected optically to,
Marantz AV 7704 which is connected to,
2 Emotiva XPA-1 Gen 1 amps
3 sealed subwoofers along the rear wall (1x15" Rythmik Audio and two Dayton 10" Dayton Titanics driven by a Crown amp with DSP)
2 Magnepan 2.7 QRs, each with a daisy chained GR Research dual 12" OB subwoofer.
So after I had been really enjoying my new 2 channel space I decided to see how it compared to my "Main system." I linked the two WiiM Pros so they were playing the same music simultaneously. I used a DB meter to level balance the systems. Then I started walking back & forth between the two systems. This is about 40 feet and due to the walls & doors one system can not be heard from the other room.
Initially I wasn't hearing much difference but as I did a few more trips what I discovered was, the living room had a tighter foundation in the bass region. The sounstage was bigger/more expansive. However the two channel room seemed more precise in the placement of the instruments in the sound stage.
At present I still prefer my main system, but not by much. My two channel space has an additional advantage in that it is isolated from the rest of the house and my wife can watch TV (in the family room) while I listen in my two channel room.
The reason I call this an unfair comparison in the title is that I spent a lot more time, energy and money on my main system.
I still have lots of playing around I can do like testing Maggies (I have 3 sets, 2.7, .7 and MMG) into the 2 channel space. I am in the process of building bigger subs to replace the 10" subs in the living room freeing them up for the 2 channel room. So I will keep myself entertained.
If anyone is in the South Florida area they are welcome to stop by and critique whatever I have operational at the time.

Edits: 08/18/24 08/18/24 08/19/24

Planar Speaker Asylum

Planar Speaker Asylum

Eminent Technology vs Magnepan, an unfair comparison.

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