Mapman, I some level I think you've hit the heart of the matter with "I don't think impedance alone is a relaible indicator of "high quality", assuming you take proper matching of the amp into consideration...."
While we can't truly seperate amps from speakers, the OP question offers food for thought on the issue re: impedance and the quality of speakers. If we try for just a moment to stay focused on speakers alone, the OP's question isn't as silly as it might first appear.
I suspect that many speakers that are designed to be more effecient are in fact not so due to inherently superior drivers or other design parameters but, done so that they can better accomodate particular amplifiers and that course of action might just very well compromise the ability of the very speakers themsleves.
There are some here that think that less effecient speakers and big ss amps are silly. I would argure that that's no sillier than less efficent, small tube amps driving big speakers.
My experience tells me that the differences between speakers is greater than the differences between amps regardless of the amps technology.
YMMV, everyones tastes are different, and the marketplace has almost everything for almost everyone. Enjoy, regardless of the path you choose.
While we can't truly seperate amps from speakers, the OP question offers food for thought on the issue re: impedance and the quality of speakers. If we try for just a moment to stay focused on speakers alone, the OP's question isn't as silly as it might first appear.
I suspect that many speakers that are designed to be more effecient are in fact not so due to inherently superior drivers or other design parameters but, done so that they can better accomodate particular amplifiers and that course of action might just very well compromise the ability of the very speakers themsleves.
There are some here that think that less effecient speakers and big ss amps are silly. I would argure that that's no sillier than less efficent, small tube amps driving big speakers.
My experience tells me that the differences between speakers is greater than the differences between amps regardless of the amps technology.
YMMV, everyones tastes are different, and the marketplace has almost everything for almost everyone. Enjoy, regardless of the path you choose.