Wilson's Chronosonic XVX loudspeaker over 3/4 of a million US dollars

@erik_squires ,
+1.
I, too, wonder why a speaker designer would design a speaker with such low impedance? -Well, I understand, that such a design contributes to the sound of the speaker, but, when it comes at the price of limiting the amps capable of playing them then why not just sell the speaker and the amp the speaker was voiced with as a combo?
Bob

@gdnrbob

Sometimes this is legitimate, and in the past, I could see that it was due to poor design tools.

Like in the early Genesis era. Damn, some of those crossovers are horrible in terms of impedance, but I can see how they got there due to manual trial and error.  Attempts to get a certain sound out of the speaker, and not having very easy tools to help you optimize frequency AND impedance at the same time.

I can also see it with something like the giant Apogee true-ribbon speakers. The very technology caused 1 Ohm impedance, but with dynamic systems, I scratch my head.

When solid state-generated watts became cheap, speaker designers started to care less and less about the impedance of the models they were creating.  Kind of a corollary of the law of supply and demand.

Sick Puppies

When solid state-generated watts became cheap, speaker designers started to care less and less about the impedance of the models they were creating. Kind of a corollary of the law of supply and demand.

@twoleftears 

I think this is a good observation.  If Genesis only had tube amps, they probably would not have been able to release some of the speakers with the impedance issues they did.

On the other hand, I think that with the design tools and computer based optimization, there is no longer any excuse.