Sez you, some of the very best are insanely hard to drive, and why class-d, OTL and you have a problem with that.
Sez the specs of all amps. Obviously this statement is misleading; George is cherry picking. On the one hand he likes to trot out Stereophile ratings to support his claims but when that same source doesn't support his claims then its ignored.
Some of the very best speakers are also very **easy** to drive. The issue is simple: Do you want the sound of a good hifi or the sound of real music?? If the latter, then you will want a speaker that is both state of the art and easy to drive since distortion is what separates the men from the boys.
While you and Ric Schultz are technically correct that higher impedance
speakers get better performance from amps than low impedance speakers,
this ignores the overwhelming superiority of low impedance
electrostatics for most musical criteria, except in large SPL dynamics
where the conventional dynamic speaker excels. If someone designed a
higher impedance stat, that would be great, but the disadvantage of
somewhat higher distortion (and it is still fairly low) into their very
low impedance is vastly outweighed by their superior transient response,
clarity, coherence, less coloration, etc. The old dictum is still
true--the speaker is the most important element in the chain, with the
possible exception of source quality. Get the best speaker you can
afford, then get the best amp that will drive that speaker.
Electrostats are a bit of an exception. Their low impedance derives from a capacitance and is at the upper frequency extreme where very little energy exists! So you don't need a powerhouse to drive them. Sound Labs are a great example and some of the very best ESLs ever made. We have lots of Sound Lab customers- about 80-85% of all our MA-2s go to Sound Lab owners. IMO, the Sound Lab is one of the top 5 speakers made price no object. Even Martin Logans don't need that much power- we've driven them with our M-60s (and a set of ZEROs) no worries.
But I don't agree about the 'best speaker you can afford' thing! The reason is simple- you may find that you have a preference for an amplifier technology- tubes for example- and if that is the case buying an incompatible speaker will simply be money down the loo. So- if you know what kind of amp you prefer, then get the best **compatible** speaker you can for it.
