We should reject hard-to-drive speakers more often


Sorry I know this is a bit of a rant, but come on people!!

Too many audiophiles find speakers which are hard to drive and... stick with them!

We need to reject hard-to-drive speakers as being Hi-Fi. Too many of us want our speakers to be as demanding as we are with a glass of wine. "Oh, this speaker sounds great with any amplifier, but this one needs amps that weigh more than my car, so these speakers MUST sound better..."

Speakers which may be discerning of amplifier current delivery are not necessarily any good at all at playing actual music. 

That is all.

erik_squires

@nevada_matt   Absolutely, and I'm mostly there. *G* 👍  Some tyding up to do, but...

Born and vaguely bred in S/W grater LA, Long Breach. *L*  Backed into audio by way of shortwave/amateur radio, because it always sounded Better in the other room....;)  
Long strange trip later, Here.  My excuse, stuck with it in allways.

Speakers 1st, my vote.  Why & How?  It's complicated....*G*

@erik_squires     No-one's 'idolising' speakers that are hard to drive.  It's just that many of the best-sounding full-range speakers are hard to drive.  Unfortunate fact.  Something to do with the difficulty of finding free lunches?

No-one’s ’idolising’ speakers that are hard to drive.

I think the real answer is between everyone and no one. The implicit situation set up is "well, it’s a demanding speaker, and it’s my fault for not having an amp up to it."

It’s like an implication there is something wrong with the audiophile if he doesn’t have mega amps. Why don't we instead say "there's something wrong with the designer of this speaker if they rate these 2 ohm speakers at 4 Ohms and expect us to fix their bad design?"

If you buy stuff that doesn’t work well together, guess who’s fault it is ?

 

IMO, electrostatic speakers are worth it. Very worth it. Like, never imagined recorded music could sound like this, worth it. ...

...

Good news is that class D amps are improving quickly. I’m auditioning a D-Sonic M3a-1200s, based on the Pascal LPro2. Jury still out. ..

 

This is an interesting topic I hope to revisit again in a few more years. My local dealer still in business after 53 years is a Soundlab dealer. He’s an all-tube guy. No longer carries any SS amps. Have heard my larger tube amps on super large Soundlabs there. Not sure it was enough amplification, hard to say. Always wondered how some of the larger Soundless would sound paired with highly developed Class-D AGD or Purify based amps. Following closely next few years as this unfolds a little more.

Not yet, but If I ever pick up a pair of really great Class-D monos down the road, I'm gonna bring them to the local shop and see if he'll give it a go on the electrostats.