Eminent Technology has built planar magnetic speakers for several decades. Their designer, Bruce Thigpen, is an original thinker and this is reflected in the design of the speakers. Eminent Technology has been in business 43 years. Thigpen has 16 patents, some licensed to Monsoon for computer speakers, Philips for tweeters; he also patented a record vacuum hold down that SOTA uses, the ET-2 air bearing tonearm, as well as the TRW-17 rotary woofer which was featured in BBC television programs, a Telarc organ recording, and used in research labs around the world.

Having heard prior versions of the LFT-8, I guessed that the latest version (LFT-8c) might be interesting. And, as it happens, the $5600 per pair price tag falls nicely into my assignment to put together an attractive $15,000 system. I chose the NAD M23 v2 power amp, with new Purifi modules, and the Wattson Madison streaming DAC preamp to go with the LFT-8c. The Wattson and the NAD are each priced at $5000, so my total system fits within the +-10% rule we’ve set for this project. Total price is therefore $15,600. Let’s see what the Eminent Technology speakers contribute.