Double down, good or bad?

Kirkus, does this description help?:
http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/16threshold/index.html

I am not a techie on the level of Nelson pass or Atmapshere (still learning), but I do have some experiences of my own, using a well built tube amp, one can use almost any speaker regardless of load, if the amps are built correctly. For example, many folks like to state that B&W or Magneplanar speakers are very hard to drive and require at least 200 watts or more. The tube amps I use drive these types of speakers easily and make wonderful music. I have been on the tube rolling circus and also discovered with the right combination, I can turn off my massive 15" subwoofer as these amps deliver deep enough to not have a sub. On some really stuff, such as deep pedal organ's, well I have to have the sub on, but the slam of the kick drum is all there.

From the reports that are starting to fill in on these amps, I think that those that state that tubes doen right are great with almost any speaker load. My amps are rated to handle loads as low as 2ohms.

http://www.octave.de/english/products/PowerAmplifiers/INFO-MRE130.htm

http://www.sixmoons.com/audioreviews/octave3/octave.html

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Audioquest4life, with all due respect you are indeed "(still learning)". It would take a hell of a tube amp to appropriately drive some Apogee's.

Unsound, we got a Golden Ear Award for our MA-1 driving a set of Apogees. This is a zero-feedback tube amp BTW.

Kirkus, its clear to me that your perspective is that of the Voltage Paradigm. As to papers on the subject, one was written by one of the designers at EV. The way tube amp manufacturers were getting their 'output impedance' down was by adding feedback- to the detriment of the resulting sound quality. The HK Citation 2 is a good example- a fair amount of feedback, used to reduce the distortion imposed by the AB pentode-based transformer-coupled output section. Despite that though, the amplifier fails to double power as the load impedance is halved. And we are not talking about clipping!!

clipping power is precisely what this thread, and "doubling-down" is all about. What I'm confused about is why you seem to be discussing clipping-power specifications and output-impedance specifications as if they're interchangable . . . or at least a common debate. They're not.

I am not discussing clipping at all, nor do I see clipping power as interchangeable with output impedance- no idea where you got that.

FWIW the 'Grand Conspiracy' thing you mention seems to me an example of adding meaning where none existed prior. All I am pointing out is what is causing the tube/transistor debate, the objective/subjective debate and the equipment matching conversation- they are all the same thing. There is a secondary conversation regarding the rules of human hearing/perception, wherein I contend that it is important to understand those rules and adhere to them as design principles. FWIW, that, for the most part, is not happening in audio.

Ralph, as I said, "it would take a hell of a tube amp...":-) Now if they were Scintillas, I'll recant my earlier post.