Sometimes Hard to Drive Speakers are a Gimmick

@OP - With all due respect, there is a lot of dubious logic in your blog post:

"Many audiophiles unfortunately believe that a speaker that shows the difference between upstream components is more musical or easy to listen to.  They are not.  They just show differences better, but these buyers will prefer the speaker that is harder to drive, and then buy a bigger amplifier."

Re above - first there is a false premises argument. The first sentence is merely an unsupported conjecture. Then there is a syllogistic fallacy viz the alleged preference of audiophiles stated in the first premise leads them to prefer speakers that are harder to drive and consequently buy bigger amplifiers.

Sorry if it appears harsh but your argument is just nonsense.

I read your blog post, and from it I glean that you think some speakers have unnecessarily low impedance. Fair enough, though  I would imagine that the professional designers of the speakers might disagree with you. But as for the rest...

It's up to the engineer to watch the impedance curve of their design. Something designed for a big room will use more energy. But it can still have a reasonable impedance curve. Low watt amps make them sound indolent. 

Only commenting on your Zobel curcuit commentary eric; well done.  When I commissioned George Short (then owner/operator of Northcreek speakers/crossovers) to build me a couple of crossovers for our B&W Matrix 801 S2 speakers, I asked him to include switchable (i.e. in /out) Zobel circuits for the woofers as were provided by B&W in the factory crossovers (not switchable, always on).  Interestingly, the woofer Zobel curcuits were eliminated in the Series 3 Matrix 801, IMO one of several reasons why it falls short of the Series 2 version sonically.  In any case, as expected, the Northcreek crossovers dramatically improved the speakers’ sonics and equally as expected, so did the Northcreek Zobel circuits.  Eliminated the switches; Zobels always on.

I think the OPs premise is absurd. No designer worth mentioning adds complexity to a design to achieve a negative attribute. 

Me:  Shows up with evidence, including schematics and stories and impedance plots essentially demonstrating what, why and how. 

@audition__audio  : Makes a statement without a shred of evidence.