Agreed Sean, I wouldn't think tubes first if I had a low-impedance, multiple-woofer, highly reactive load to drive. I'm more just curious about the audiophile psychology when it comes to this type of spec (and anyone can feel free to chime in on the subject).
Surely we've all noticed how an amp's ability to 'double-down' - or even the illusory capability of it, engendered by fudged specsmanship (where the output capabilities of a SS amp into a 2-ohm load is presumably taken for the baseline figure and then successively halved into each doubled nominal load, thus underreporting the amp's 8-ohm capabilities in order to make the amp appear completely load-indifferent) - is trumpeted for SS amps and ignored for tubed amps.
Yet no mention is ever made of the obvious fact that this supposed attribute or deficiency, depending on which direction you're coming from, apparently makes very little to no actual sonic difference in most 'normal' set-ups. I mean, it's not like in most systems, a good tubed amp of appropriate power rating is going to fail to transmit the bass frequencies or something. Still, many audiophiles will schizophrenically look down their noses at SS amps which admittedly can't 'double-down', while at the same time holding tubed amps to a completely different standard where this ability isn't even a consideration. I am proposing that there may actually be a pretty good reason for the latter phenomenon: 'doubling-down' is apparently an ability that normally won't make a predictable sonic difference in the real world.
Presumably, this would be because most good tube amps of appropriately-matched power ratings, used with most typical speakers at common volume levels in average-sized rooms, will still be able to supply all the current demanded of them throughout the spectrum, regardless of the speakers' varying loads. Ralph Karsten (see my previous post) takes glee in proposing a divergent view of the situation as it applies to his own OTL tubed amps: he chooses to fault SS amps for wimping out and providing less power as impedance rises - instead praising tubed amps for putting out relatively constant power (discounting the effects of matching the output transformer to the load, since of course his amps don't have output transformers) across a broad plateau of load impedances. He also says, in effect, watts are watts, and most speakers won't even come close to demanding all the current theoretically available from the big SS arc-welders: power draw at normal volumes, as determined by common speaker impedance and sensitivity ranges, and as supplied where Watts = Amps x Volts from any type of amp, will virtually never exceed the current-delivery capabilities of a sufficiently good tubed amplifier. He winkingly asks, Should we truly want varying power into varying loads, or should we really want constant power into varying loads?
Actually, for myself, I suspect his argument is at least as much sophistry as the 'doubling-down' one. To me, the real issue is likely that how any amp responds at its maximum rated average continuous power limits is largely beside the point, since if it is correctly-matched with the system, room, and desired volume level, it will be running well below its maximum average continuous power limit, and thus won't be called upon to deliver more power than it can supply when actually playing music. In other words, whether an amps responds by supplying 200w at 8 ohms and 400w at 4 ohms - or 200w at both (or 400w at both) - at its maximum average continuous output limits when playing a static test signal, is largely immaterial when the question in the real world is: Can such amps supply a few watts of averaged continuous output power with occasional brief peaks an order or two of magnitude higher when playing music into a load that varies? For most systems and listeners, the answer in both cases, tube or SS, will probably be yes, thus rendering any amp's abilities with continuous power demands not found in the real world academic - and thereby explaining why we don't actually hear the maximum rated continuous power-into-load behavior of either type of amp as being a sonic liability as long as it's up to the job at hand.
