Hi Chris, the answer has to do with the 'voltage source' quality of most transistor amps. What we are talking about is the fact that regardless of load, a transistor amp will (attempt, at least, to) put out the same voltage.
For example, in the case of an 8 ohm load, a 100 watt transistor amp will put out about 28 volts. Into 4 ohms, it makes that same voltage- that's 200 watts. What happens with higher impedance loads? It makes the same voltage- 16 ohms and 28 volts is 50 watts; into 32 ohms that would be only about 25 watts.
Most transistor amp employ a fair amount of feedback, which helps to 'linearize' the voltage response (according to the rules of the Voltage Paradigm); this helps flatten the frequency response of the amp a little but also means a 100 watt amp is not going to be making much power on the Sound Labs, and is why the speaker gets paired with what appear otherwise to be some very high powered transistor amps, to get around this phenomena. But regardless of the power, it will never be 100% successful if the amplifier cannot satisfy the rules that the speaker operates by.
IOW, the rules of the Voltage Paradigm don't help you all that much when faced by the load of a typical ESL. If you had an amplifier that made constant **power** into all loads, then you would get much flatter response out of the speaker (most people have **no idea** how well they play bass, for example). Amps that can do that on the Sound Lab are very few and far between. This is part of the reason that the speaker has such a varied reaction amongst audiophiles: no doubt most people have not heard what the speaker can really do when driven right.
For example, in the case of an 8 ohm load, a 100 watt transistor amp will put out about 28 volts. Into 4 ohms, it makes that same voltage- that's 200 watts. What happens with higher impedance loads? It makes the same voltage- 16 ohms and 28 volts is 50 watts; into 32 ohms that would be only about 25 watts.
Most transistor amp employ a fair amount of feedback, which helps to 'linearize' the voltage response (according to the rules of the Voltage Paradigm); this helps flatten the frequency response of the amp a little but also means a 100 watt amp is not going to be making much power on the Sound Labs, and is why the speaker gets paired with what appear otherwise to be some very high powered transistor amps, to get around this phenomena. But regardless of the power, it will never be 100% successful if the amplifier cannot satisfy the rules that the speaker operates by.
IOW, the rules of the Voltage Paradigm don't help you all that much when faced by the load of a typical ESL. If you had an amplifier that made constant **power** into all loads, then you would get much flatter response out of the speaker (most people have **no idea** how well they play bass, for example). Amps that can do that on the Sound Lab are very few and far between. This is part of the reason that the speaker has such a varied reaction amongst audiophiles: no doubt most people have not heard what the speaker can really do when driven right.