Anyone With A Class 'D' Amp Play A 4 or 2 Ohm Speaker?

Anyone have experience running them with Quad electrostatics, which go down to 2 ohms in the high frequencies.  Considering for a pair of stacked quads.

Most Class D amps behave as voltage sources, which is to say that they can double power as the impedance is cut in half.

This does not work in your favor in the case of ESLs, the reason being that the typical ESL has an impedance curve that varies by about 10:1 from the bass to about 20KHz. In addition, the impedance curve is not based on a driver in a box as you know.

When the impedance curve **is** based on a driver in a box, the impedance curve is also a map of the efficiency of the speaker; so for example the resonant peak of the driver in the box will be a peak in the impedance curve.

ESLs have their impedance curve based on a capacitor so its not a map of the efficiency of the speaker. IOW, the speaker has the same efficiency from the bass all the way to 20KHz or wherever it rolls off.

We all know that solid state amps and also class D amps can often double power as impedance is cut in half. Think about that happening over a 10:1 range- the amp will be making about 8x more power than it should at high frequencies. This is why solid state amps often sound bright on ESLs.

Where is LIKE button???

How about a subwoofer amplifier for the Low Pass and your favorite amplifier for High Pass in biamp configuration?

When a good solid state amp with good current ability, drives a wild impedance curve, like many esl’s have, and speakers like Wilsons have, it will stay close to flat across the frequency range, giving least colouration.

Where a many a tube amp and some mosfets will start to behave like a tone control giving a far from flat frequency response, giving more colouration to the sound.

This is why with Martin Logan ESL as I have, which go down to 1ohm in the high frequencies can sound recessed in the highs with tubes, but with good solid state with good current drive the high are better defined not recessed and extended. Same applies to the bass if low in impedance.

This is proved many times by Stereophile’s amplifier tests into simulated speaker load conditions.

Cheers George

When a good solid state amp with good current ability, drives a wild impedance curve, like many esl’s have, and speakers like Wilsons have, it will stay close to flat across the frequency range, giving least colouration.

Because of the inclusion of ESLs in this statement, it is false. The coloration of solid state and ESLs is brightness, and often accompanied by a lack of bass energy although the extension is usually there.

Because of this fact, for best performance the match of amp to speaker is something you have to be careful about with ESLs.

This is proved many times by Stereophile’s amplifier tests into simulated speaker load conditions.

There is an inference here that a simulated load pertains to an ESL; it does not. It pertains to a box speaker; Stereophile is not claiming that the response on a simulated load translates to anything regarding an ESL. The simulated load does not represent an ESL panel in open air. Its an entirely different technology! As I pointed out earlier, in a **box** speaker the impedance curve is also a map of its efficiency at any given frequency.

This is not true of ESLs which do not have a resonance of a driver in a box.

Now in the case of Martin Logan, they are trying to capture the largest market possible for their speakers. To this end they have set the bass impedance of their speakers at 4 ohms, which means they are in the neighborhood of 0.5 ohms at 20KHz. Naturally no tube amp can play that properly, neither can most solid state amps. At this impedance, the speaker cable becomes a significant portion of the output impedance of the amplifier. Most solid state amps can't continue to double power as impedance is decreased to this low level; the idea is to prevent the constant voltage character of most solid state amps from actually working.

It sort of works IMO, but not very well. There is no point in making any amplifier work hard as distortion is the result, and ESLs are pretty transparent. The type of distortion likely to show up is higher ordered harmonics, which will contribute to brightness and harshness. So while there are some benefits from this approach, it is not without tradeoffs.