MEASURED PERFORMANCE 

Initial measurement revealed a sharp phase dip between bass and midrange drivers. Reversing the connections to the bass unit – easy to do on this loudspeaker – brought the drivers into relative phase with each other and produced the frequency response shown. In essence the m midrange and treble ribbon drivers are quite flat and even, free from the small peaks of local resonance that colour conventional drivers. The small treble unit has a peak of a few dB unless measured slightly off axis (as we measured it), whereupon it measures quite flat. So, for flattest response the LFT-16 should be pointed straight down a room; for slightly stronger treble that should be pointed at the listener. Either way, the magnetic planar drivers measure very well, being unusually smooth in their output – expect a silky sound.

The sensitivity of such drivers is usually on the low side and this explains why their output is slightly below that of the bass/midrange unit. This makes for an easy, full bodied sound and also keeps sensitivity up. Measuring just 82dB sensitivity is low even with such measures in place and the LFT-16s need a little power to go loud – around 60 Watts or more. Overall impedance measured 7.3 Ohms with pink noise and the impedance curve is very smooth; how LFT prevent the sealed-box bass driver from peaking sharply I do not know; it looks quite well damped and gets down to a respectable lower limit of 55Hz before output falls steeply. So low bass and subsonics are limited and near wall use preferable. Our decay plot shows a good result with little overhang generally from the magnetic planar drivers n particular. Our distortion analysis shows quite clearly how distortion descends to less than 0.1% where the magnetic planar driver operates, from 800Hz to 10kHz. 

The LFT-16's magnetic planar drive units and bass driver measure very well. This is a loudspeaker with unique properties.  NK

FREQUENCY RESPONSE (what it means)

Green - as delivered; White - re-connected in-phase.

IMPEDANCE (what it means)

DECAY SPECTRUM 200mS (what it means)

DECAY MAP 200mS (what it means)

DISTORTION (what it means)

BASS DISTORTION (what it means)