Double down, good or bad?


I came across this article on Atma Sphere's website:

http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/myth.html

In short, Atma Sphere believes having a power amp that is capable of doubling its power when impedance is half is not necessarily a good thing because speakers in general do not have a flat impedance across all freq range.

On paper, it does make sense. Though I am sure speaker designers take that into consideration and reduce/increase output where necessary to achieve the flatest freq response, that explains why most of the speakers measured by Stereophile or other magazines have near flat responses.

But what if designer use tube amps to design his speakers, mating them with solid state should yield higher bass output in general? Vice versa, tube amps yield less bass output at home?

I have always been a tube guy and learned to live with less bass weight/impact in exchange of better midrange/top end. Will one be better off buying the same exact amp the speakers were "voiced" with, not that it will guarantee good sound, at least not to everyone's ear.
semi
Unsound, I agree with you. I should point out that what you said in your last post is not anything I was suggesting. I think its nice if an amp measures well, if it also sounds good to the human ear.

What I have found is that the physics of making an amp sound good has to do first with understanding the rules of human hearing, then applying the physics to get the amp to follow those rules.

Negative feedback is a primary violator of one of the fundamental rules of human hearing (its use enhances the harmonics that the ear uses to determine volume of a sound) and a lot of amps use feedback to reduce distortion i.e. look good on the bench. Amplifiers that have good bench specs and no feedback are rare but they exist. Interestingly enough, most of those amps also have a reputation for good sound too.
We can conclude then that a technically correct amp is good. Doulbe down if done right is good. See(hear?) Bryston amps. It depends on where you are going and how you want to get there.
If you pass on Ralphs' amps merely because they don't double down you are making a mistake. On the other hand there are speakrs that should not be mated with Atmasphere.
If you pass on Ralphs' amps merely because they don't double down you are making a mistake
I agree. BTW, as Ralph's amps use tubes they do NOT double down. It's not a characteristic; They can do other things (like, operate safely without feedback). Indeed, some tube circuits half down!

Some one once noted that if an amp sounds good & measures bad, you're measuring the wrong things.
I've got an amp that's rated at 250 watts into 8 ohms, 400 into 4....

suppose tomorrow the manufacturer decides to re-introduce this identical amp...new fancy face plate..absolutely identical electrical design. However...

it's new ratings are now 100 watts into 8 ohms, 200 watts into 4 ohms, 400 watts into 2 ohms...etc.

does it now sound better? This "double down" can be as much specmanship as anything else. IMHO of course....