We should reject hard-to-drive speakers more often

Erik: Very much agree about Infinities. I had a pair of the RS-1b’s, which so many people think were/are great. Anyone thinking about getting a pair: be prepared to have them reconditioned. Many of the EMIT and EMIM drivers are now unusable, having been manufactured to pretty low standards. Bruce Thigpen’s Eminent Technology LFT drivers made at the same time as the EMIT and EMIM drivers remain in perfect working condition (I have LFT-4’s made back then). And as you say, the crossovers are junk. But that’s true of the crossovers in most loudspeakers! Maggie owners: pull off the plate on the back of your speakers and look at what the signal is passing through!!

When I read about the Apogees I became instantly uninterested; who wants to have to listen to a Krell amplifier? ;-)

Great examples of each but I will say I’ve never really liked any super efficient speakers. I heard some Cornwall 4 when I was buying a sub for a guy and they sounded great for the little bit I heard them but playing music I don’t listen to at not very loud volumes. LOVING my new B&W 801 Matrix. The voicing is just so freaking good for me. Again pigs to drive. 

Interesting subject. I know of a few a'phile friends who bought speakers without first contemplating what amp will work with them. These folk either no longer own the speaker, or they have bought high powered ( and usually low SQ) ss amps to drive their speakers. Then we have the guy who bought a SET amp with 8 watts/ch hoping to drive his Wilson Alexia's. Disappointment might as well have been his name!

Problem is that unless one is listening to basically horn based speakers, then the requirement for upstream power is going to be factor. But, I do agree with you, the needs of a speaker like the YG's, or the aforementioned Apogee's, should be a turn-off to most hobbyists.

MBL is an awesome speaker.  One of the most serious speakers in the world.  MBL can be brutally revealing and difficult to drive.  Bring your A game or keep looking.  I've heard Convergent amps drive the heck out of them, but a lot of really good amps will struggle at some point to keep their composure.   

While I don’t disagree but people want small speakers and deep bass so that in turn makes them hard to drive. They often wire multiple bass drivers in parallel  which drops the impedance too  

I have owned 86db speakers and 91db speakers and don’t notice much difference but use a pretty powerful amp at 450 watts a channel. I am in the camp of but the biggest speaker you can afford and bigger is always better lol.