We should reject hard-to-drive speakers more often


Sorry I know this is a bit of a rant, but come on people!!

Too many audiophiles find speakers which are hard to drive and... stick with them!

We need to reject hard-to-drive speakers as being Hi-Fi. Too many of us want our speakers to be as demanding as we are with a glass of wine. "Oh, this speaker sounds great with any amplifier, but this one needs amps that weigh more than my car, so these speakers MUST sound better..."

Speakers which may be discerning of amplifier current delivery are not necessarily any good at all at playing actual music. 

That is all.

erik_squires

If you buy stuff that doesn’t work well together, guess who’s fault it is ?

If a speaker is rated at 4 ohms but is actually a 2 Ohm speaker that is not the buyer's fault.

My point isn't about whose fault anything is. It's about what  we venerate.  "ooooooh, a half ohm speaker which needs a super amp... I must be mas macho if I get this working!"

...speakers need a warning label, like cigarettes and alcohol?

WARNING: THESE UNITS MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR POWER AMPLIFIER(S) AND YOUR BANK ACCOUNT!

Would this stop anyone?

Not likely....

yes Erik, the manufacturer providing false information is a very different issue than knowingly buying difficult speakers and not being prepared...

I personally have. Dynaudios are hard to drive, I don't buy them anymore, even though they are very high quality. Hard to drive speakers aren't fun at low volumes.

I also see this problem kind of hidden in reviews.  Something like this:

Speaker xxx was clearly able to discern the difference between amp A and amp b so it must be very resolving.

It wasn't at all very resolving, or discerning.  It was demanding.