Sometimes Hard to Drive Speakers are a Gimmick

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. 

@audition-audio 

+1

I know many electrical design engineers. I have worked closely with dozens and they are focused on the desired outcome. When you are talking about high-end audio...an incredibly competitive field... from a business point of view... there is no margin to do things to make your product less desirable. If speakers are hard to drive... then that is because that is what it took to voice them correctly. 

I would recommend contacting speaker design engineers and talking to them about their design goals and requirements.

I remember back in the 1980's a bunch of nerds could not understand the less than stellar performance on IBM PCs. We talked to an IBM design engineer (I was in graduate school)... He listed the design requirements the top two were: Safety, and compatibility. Things we never thought of ... and everything fell into place when we understood what they were trying to accomplish. 

WHY?

today high powered amplifiers which can put power into low impedances are everywhere

So most loudspeaker designers simply don’t care it is not a consideration

and most high end loudspeakers will be used with the appropriate matching electronics

today a high powered powerful integrated can be purchased for1500

a Nuprime ida9 can put out400W (8 Ohms), 500W (4 Ohms) so that means under 4 ohms the amplifier can still be putting out power 

as long as you have adequate cooling most amplifiers will have no problem and even in the case of a low impedance dip it still depends on the frequency content, amount, and duration, of that signal

take away not the same issue with most modern high quality amplifiers.

Many amps can drive difficult loads but that isn’t the same as saying they are sounding their best while doing so. For one thing, distortion is higher. It may not seem like much, but since our ears are tuned to using higher ordered harmonics to sense sound pressure the slight increase in distortion is heard as a less relaxed, less authoritative and less detailed presentation. 

Put another way, if you want the most out of your amplifier dollar investment, it will be best served by using a speaker that is easy to drive and more efficient. Amps sound best when they loaf for a living rather than working hard. 

I don’t think speaker designers make speakers harder to drive on purpose so much as they just don’t know any better because they don’t also design amps.