Finding (calculating?) speaker and amp impedance

Technics does and employ something like their LAPC function which "looks" as the speaker impedances with a series of test tones and adjusts the amps output to match it as closely as possible.

@nonoise

I must admit that this is a pretty cool application, but kind of limited in benefit. Perhaps the biggest benefit is to switching amps which tend to suffer (relatively) high output impedances at high frequencies.

@erik_squires 

Every little bit helps. And, if done enough times by manufacturers, someone else will eventually come up with a better mousetrap.

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise True, but you also have to then accept the ADC / DAC of the amp. If you want to keep an analog chain after that DAC you spent 2 years pickinmg out this tech is wrong for you. :)

@erik_squires , I have zero issues with the sound of the amp and it's internal ADC/DAC. To my way of thinking, that's way overthinking the problems one might encounter 2 years down the line. I've never been into the DAC flavor of the month club. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@erik_squires 

Another, and I've seen Focal do this, is that a difficult to drive speaker is seen as "discerning."  No, I'm not going over this detail, either you believe me or you do not, but reviewers give far too much positive press to a speaker that shows you the difference between an integrated and million dollar monoblock. 

I was afraid to but almost said something along these lines in my earlier post. A hard to drive speaker can give a very expensive amp a reason to exist, and the amp can then complement the speaker's "revealing" capabilities. So both sort of act together in a mutual appreciation club. But I recall some speaker manufacturer's mantra that "watts are cheap!" to explain why he designed inefficient speakers. Apparently he thought inefficient designs sounded better overall if you just gave them enough cheap watts.