Amplifier circuitry-4 ohm vs 8 ohm

@atmasphere 

And there in lies the challenge.

I believe tubes represent a more even profile of the harmonics, elevating the harmonics in the upper range better than solid state.

So the richness of tubes and benefits of improved gain at lower levels makes them very attractive.  However, powerful tube amplifiers generate a ton of heat and this is disappointing.  It's like having a portable heater unit set to low continuously while you operate a tube amplifier, as I have learned. Unfortunately most of us don't live in a room with very high ceilings which would be a great place for heat to be accumulated without impacting the humans.

Maybe A more efficient speaker would be more desirable when working with a tube amplifier that uses less watts. ie, Full benefit of tubes without all the heat.

Hopefully I got all this right

I believe tubes represent a more even profile of the harmonics, elevating the harmonics in the upper range better than solid state.

@emergingsoul 

This is incorrect. Tube amps tend to make more the lower ordered harmonics, the 2nd and 3rd, which is the source of their 'richness'. These two harmonics are at a high enough level in tube amps that they are able to mask the higher ordered harmonics, which are heard otherwise (if not masked) as harshness and brightness. The class D amp I'm playing at home does exactly the same thing, and since the distortion signature of any amplifier is the way that amplifier sounds its not a surprise that this amp sounds exactly like a very good tube amplifier.

I have ARC amps from 1995, 2018 and 2023, and they all have 16, 8 and 4 ohm taps. My ELS speakers impedance curve indicates about 30 ohms at 20Hz and 3 ohms at 20kHz. The 16 ohm taps sound excellent. The 8 ohm taps do too, but with a different balance and therefore dynamic.

@emergingsoul:

I doubt any two amps, especially a tube amp and a class D amp, sound "exactly like"....

@williambf

Very interesting, you make up above.

It seems the impedance curve of a speaker is very important in assessing Ohm range throughout the frequency range. And there by it seems selecting the proper tap somewhere within the ohm range on the curve would influence how each tap may perform.

Very important and I’m gonna get the impedance curve for my speakers which seems a good idea, because I like to think I’m somewhat smart about this sort of thing albeit very slow

@williambf Wrote:

I doubt any two amps, especially a tube amp and a class D amp, sound "exactly like"....

I agree 😎

Mike