8 Ohm Speakers

These rules are all just fine "all other things being equal" like with all theories. I came across a pair of valve amps made in Korea some years ago. The only tap on them was 8ohm. I tried them on both my sets of speakers at the time - both 4ohm from Thiel and Martin-Logan. They sounded fantastic, so I bought the amps. Since then I have surmised I should get a good pair of 8ohm speakers and hear what these babies can really do. The result was disappointing, but with the good news that these amps sounded equally at home on 4ohm and 8 ohm speakers. I have even continued to try solid state amps on my speakers and am always disappointed that they don't generate the excitement and emotional involvement with the music as the tube monos do, and offer no real improvements in the bass.

Big: It is the X-A1 integrated that would not handle the bass on a pair of Tukans that a local dealer loaned us (I ended up with the speakers almost out to the middle of the room and kept saying "It must be the room, It must be the room":-). My tube amp is in the shop right now and the MF amp does a fine job with a pair of Reynauds (also 4 ohms and basically the same specs as the Linn speakers. You never know till you try.

Dekay, which model is your Musical Sidelity SS amp? I'm just curious if it is the one I have.

Not all tube amps have problems with 4 ohm load. My Audion Silver Night definately does not and neither did an early version of the little Decware amp that I played around with late last year (it actually performed better, IMO, into a 4 ohm load as the bass was fuller and tighter). Each amp and speaker combination really needs to be auditioned to to tell the true story as the numbers are often misleading, as is the general folklore of such supposed matches. In addition my old Mac 30's also sounded great with 4-6 ohm loads however my Musical Fidelity SS amp would not control the bass on pair of 4 ohm Linn Tukan's, go figure.

Jaica: Thank you for your response. I guess what has me confused is that at some point my solid state amp won't be effective with a speaker (if it exists) with a 2 ohm resistance. Now can the same be said going the other way, higher resistance? I notice when I play my 32 ohm headphones the volume must be doubled and I assume at that point the 60 watt amp is only pushing out 15 watts. So just like tube amps must solid state amps be matched to speakers, but for different reasons?

Watts = Current square X Resistance
W= I square * R
For a solid state amp with a good power supply you will double the Watts if you half the resistance since the current in the circuit will double. This will only work with an adequate power supply. On the same token a high resistance speaker say 16 ohms will reduce the wattage by one half.

Tube amps do not work that way. Most tube amps will reduce output at lower Resistance, or have a stable watt ouput at best. That is the nature of the beast. Tube amps like loads of 8 to 16 ohms no problem.

Coincident is a good speaker example of high resistive load say 10 to 14 ohms. It has been in the last 20 or 25 years that you see a lot of 4 ohms and lower speakers. Before that 8 ohms and higher was the norm.

The Coincident Eclipse series are rated at 14 ohms

I dont know of any speakers made over 8 ohms, what speakers are you looking at?