Audio Science Review = "The better the measurement, the better the sound" philosophy

@fair  -- All that typing, and all that work, but not even a minute of research to understand why a resistive load is used for amplifier testing.  It took me a bit longer to understand this item. I think I spent almost 30 minutes, but now I am comfortable with the answer. I also know now that everyone uses resistors for testing including Stereophile. Stereophile has a simulated speaker load, but this measurement provides no additional information that cannot be ascertained in other measurements. I quickly found at least 6 and probably there are many more discussions on using complex loads for amplifier testing on ASR. I had to Google to understand some of the terms, but I muddled through. Even the stronger proponents of complex load testing, after the discussion progressed, agreed it was of limited and would only be valuable with an extreme speaker and a marginal amplifier.  

I thank you for encouraging me to look into this as I sort of understood it, but had not delved deep enough. It was a less complex topic than I was expecting.

Atkinson's Stereophile measurements are not comprehensive.  I do prefer some relevant measurements he/they provide compared to no measurements from The Absolute Sound which reads entirely as subjectivist reviews.  

When you test an amplifier, you have to pick a condition that all amplifiers will pass, or the data can't be used for comparison. But all loudspeaker loads are not the same. Hook an amplifier up to an Apogee with 1 ohm or less impedance and you will smoke a lot of amplifiers at high power levels. Measurement testing is not the final answer. Real world testing is final arbitrator. 

Even the stronger proponents of complex load testing, after the discussion progressed, agreed it was of limited and would only be valuable with an extreme speaker and a marginal amplifier.  

The Scintilla, would be a very rare speaker to encounter. The above statement covers this situation. Negating the value of measurements because they only apply in 99.99% of situations is a fools outcome.

Negating the value of measurements because they only apply in 99.99% of situations is a fools outcome.

In the segment I shop in, I'm very likely to get a difficult to drive speaker. I can list them if you would like. My history shows about 80% difficult loads.