Current amp vs Voltage amp

"I've picked some LP dogs that are so bad, the neighborhood dogs howl. And I don't think that's because of NF or impedance peaks or negative phase angles. Some recorded music just stinks."

No doubt.

Personally in my audio "journey" I have been in places in the past on occasion where few recordings seemed worth listening to. Nowadays, no two sound the same, and some are still barely listenable but the vast majority sound good enough for me to enjoy, especially if one takes pleasure in the variety of sounds a recording might deliver rather than futilely attempting to make them all sound similarly good.

FWIW, I use an ARC tube pre-amp and a Bel Canto Class D amp. There is a lot to be sid about pairing a tube pre-amp with a good Class D amp, if a tube amp is not what the speakers ordered.

So my conclusion is that the devil is in the details and the details are what will swing you one way or the other, for better or for worse.

As the great scholar and musician Frank Zappa once said, "you are what you is". Very true when it comes to recordings.

The box resonance peak is where it is. How does the Power Paradigm amplifier move that peak to a lower frequency?
If the resistance in the bass region goes up (due to a box resonance) then the current into that higher resistance goes down. the voltage must go up to keep constant power. Where does the bass extension come from?

This is a matter of design. The peak exists as a relationship of the driver and the box. Change the relationship, change the peak. The bass extension comes from designing the box so the peak occurs at or below the cutoff of the driver, in such a way that the peak maintains the bandwidth. Not hard to do if you understand speaker design.

I believe that a traditional SS amp (one that was not designed for an ESL in mind) will likely sound mediocre 'cuz of the high capacitance load that will tend to make that amp oscillate & eventually fail. OTOH, if a SS amp is designed with an ESL in mind (& a few names come to mind that are being used successfully with ESLs & planars) then these SS amps will be effective.

Belief and reality are usually two different things. In this case I invite you to do the math. How much power will an ideal 400 watt SS amp make into 30 ohms and into 3 ohms? If you answer 'about 100 watts and about 900 watts' then you have some grasp of the problem.

to be fair, when the SPL get's really high, my ears hurt. So what's the point of that exercise?? ;>')

If that happens with less than 105 db, then its an indication that the system has some sort of odd ordered harmonic generation associated with its operation. A sound pressure level meter might be handy to sort out the actual volume level.

"If that happens with less than 105 db, then its an indication that the system has some sort of odd ordered harmonic generation associated with its operation. A sound pressure level meter might be handy to sort out the actual volume level."

Maybe, but levels louder than 80-85 db (much lower) are often cited as the limits of safe listening without causing damage to ones hearing.

Even if you can go 105db, it may not be such a great idea to do so.

Maybe our hearing works a certain way with certain sensitivities for a reason?

I wonder what happens if one listens to nicely produced music, say a big band with lots of brass and high frequency energy live at 105DB? Is it as comfortable as listening to the no NF tube amp at the same level? Its a fair question, I think.

ANyway, its nice to know if one can go to 105db cleanly in any case. That's a pretty good indicator that you have the headroom needed for good results at more moderate volumes, where excessive loudness should not be an issue.

I believe that a traditional SS amp (one that was not designed for an ESL in mind) will likely sound mediocre 'cuz of the high capacitance load that will tend to make that amp oscillate & eventually fail. OTOH, if a SS amp is designed with an ESL in mind (& a few names come to mind that are being used successfully with ESLs & planars) then these SS amps will be effective.

Belief and reality are usually two different things. In this case I invite you to do the math. How much power will an ideal 400 watt SS amp make into 30 ohms and into 3 ohms? If you answer 'about 100 watts and about 900 watts' then you have some grasp of the problem.

Atmasphere, it was not clear to me what was being referred to. Al cleared that up for me - you were referring to speaker design & not amp design. I figured you were speaking of amp design given your vocation.
The "I believe" part was a way of writing in the English language. Maybe I should have written "I believe it to be true....".

Re. the math problem you cited, yes, I did get those values.
So? The amps I'm thinking of are capable of generating these kinds of wattages & sounding musical at the same time. Indeed that's what I was thinking in the 1st place when I wrote that post.....

Re. the math problem you cited, yes, I did get those values.
So? The amps I'm thinking of are capable of generating these kinds of wattages & sounding musical at the same time. Indeed that's what I was thinking in the 1st place when I wrote that post.....

I may have misunderstood, but I think Ralph's point is that a 9 to 1 ratio of power into a load based on its impedance vs. frequency characteristics would likely result in significant frequency variation driven from this amp. He earlier mentioned the higher impedance in the bass and lower impedance in the treble for ESL's and the bass weak and bright sound of SS amps driving them. I am "inferring" what he meant and bring no real expertise to this discussion; however, I am enjoying the discussion and thank all contributors for keeping it going.