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

there are so many things we should reject. Not sure hard to drive speakers are at the top of my list. 

Just found this thread again.  I completely agree with you about your post Sounds_real!  Too many folks read specs etc… and forget to put a true ‘system’ together.  As long as you have the system to match your speakers, you’ll never have to worry about specs and how hard or easy a speaker is to drive.  

I’ve always marveled at how many folks just assume speakers with lower efficiency ratings assume they are hard to drive etc…, but in fact they may end up being easy to drive in real life.  

As long as you have the system to match your speakers, you’ll never have to worry about specs and how hard or easy a speaker is to drive.

 

Well, how exactly do you match those without a lot of trial and error, or social knowledge if you can’t actually rely on specs?

As a consumer this seems like a ton of work. Sometimes this work is a lot more because vendors ( looking at you, KEF ) completely mischaracterize their products.

Why do some tube amps have the power to drive apogee scintilla and full range speakers, the specs certainly don't tell you this would work.

What tube amps ( tubes used in the output stage ) can " adequately " drive 1 ohm Scintillas ? I am not aware of any, and would like to know, so I may sleep better tonight. My best, MrD.