Current amp vs Voltage amp

I always tell owners of ARC to try the 4 ohm tap. Some like it better some not so much. Note that there aren't many true 8 ohm impedance speakers especially just past the woofer impedance peak. Woofers usually dip to around 3-6 ohms. You might even get better bass control and definition off that tap.

It does beg the question, why aren't more manufacturers making powered speakers, and why is it that people don't seem to buy them. Since the interface between speaker and amp is critical, and hopefully a designer has taken that interface into consideration in the design, it does seem logical that a powered speaker should be the best of both worlds. Ideas?

The only disadvantage I can see is a service issue. If one of that amps fails in an active speaker system you lose both the speaker and the amp vs. just one or the other in a passive system. Remember, in an active speaker system the filters for the crossover can be active.

It might interest you to know that the Quad 405 current dumping solid state amp which was designed for use with the Quad 57 and later the Quad 63 actually damaged the speaker because is lacked a limiter. The amp was capable of producing to much output for either speaker. A limiter add on circuit board was designed for the 405-2 to stop the damage. Ten different iterations of clamp circuit boards were designed for the Quad 63 speaker so that when the clamp engaged, it didn't blow up the amp powering it. Quad had it right with their original QuadII amps which were tube. Quads prefer voltage amps not current amps. The Quad 57 wanted to see no more than 40 Vp-p or about 25Wrms across 8 ohms.