The amp has to be able to drive any speaker I may acquire in the future. The argument that high current amps are somehow less refined or relaxed sounding I’ll take with a grain of salt since most high end amps out there ara high current designs.
@lukaszwk Apparently the math I showed earlier was ignored.
Put plainly, a ’high current’ amp is at best, slang. Current does not exist without Voltage. ’High Current’ thus implies ’high Voltage’ too and thus high power.
There are plenty of amps that meet this description. But you also specified
strong, articulate, fast bass, smooth resolving mid-range and extended non fatiguing highs.
That doesn’t always come with a powerhouse amp. For example, what you are asking for has been a description of our OTLs (OTLs are tube amps that have no output transformer) many times over the last 5 decades we’ve been making them, but I’m sure most would agree that they are not powerhouse amps and only 2 of our models can drive 2 Ohms (our class D amp can though).
One of the things that can affect how musical (’smooth resolving mid-range and extended non fatiguing highs’) an amplifier is can be seen in the Frequency vs Distortion curve, which many amp manufacturers don’t publish. A lot of solid state amps have a very flat curve up to some frequency such as 1KHz where distortion rises. This is often caused by the feedback decreasing at that frequency due to a lack of gain and bandwidth to support the gain of the amp and the feedback it has (the two together are known as ’loop gain’).
If an amp has this property (many solid state amps do) the distortion at 7KHz can be quite a lot higher than it is at 1KHz (and so may not show up in the THD spec since that is usually measured at 1KHz or less)! This can cause higher ordered harmonics to be unmasked (masking is a human hearing principle in which louder sounds mask the presence of quieter sounds).
FWIW if you’ve wondered why zero feedback amps exist, the above two paragraphs explain the main reason. A zero feedback amp can have a flat distortion vs frequency curve across the entire audible spectrum.
The ear uses higher ordered harmonics to sense sound pressure (which is easily proven with simple test equipment) so the ear is keenly sensitive to them has it has a roughly 120dB range.
This is why solid state amps over the decades have garnered a reputation for harshness and brightness and is why tube amps are still around in high end audio.
No one is paying those prices for amps that sound strained.
This statement is false BTW, many people do and pay a lot more than your budget! The reason why is they simply haven’t heard better- yet.
This does not mean all solid state amps are bright. So you have to be careful.
However my advice, if you want that ’articulate’ bit you mentioned, is still to stay away from low impedance/hard to drive speakers simply because any amp driving them will be less articulate due to higher distortion.
So this statement
I refuse to compromise on sound because a speaker is not an easy load.
will end in tears since if the speaker isn’t an easy load it will be a compromise.
One other thing:
High sensitivity speakers have their own drawbacks.
A speaker that is easier to drive and is also full range might be rather large. But I know of plenty of speakers that are larger than mine and don’t go any deeper, yet my speakers (flat to 20Hz) are also 98dB.
We can rule out resolution as a problem with easy to drive speakers. We also know they will be more dynamic owing to less thermal compression.
So I am curious what you think those ’drawbacks’ are.
