Current optimized or voltage optimized speakers?

Ralph, Al and others -- thanks for your responses, but I'm still not sure the question has been answered.

As I said, my speakers -- Paradigm S-8 v3's -- have some pretty wild impedance and phase angle curves. At one point (100Hz I think), impedance is as low as 4 ohms. But above and below that point, it's roller coaster land. Phase angles are weird too. Nevertheless, the speakers are nominally rated at 8 ohms. How Paradigm came up with that number, I'll never know.

Al, you're pretty good at finding equipment specs on line. If you can find the Paradigm S-8 specs, you'll see what I mean.

I drive my S-8s with an ARC VS-115 tube amp -- output is 120+ wpc. To my untrained ears, bass slam is great, overall sound is smooth, imaging very good, and so forth and so on. And I know bass is great because my wife is always complaining about the house shaking.

I guess I'm just lucky with my dumb choices, dunno. But if I was starting from scratch and already owned the VS-115, should I have looked to match my amp with a different type of speaker; and vice versa, if I already owned the S-8s, should I have looked to match the speakers with a different type of amp.

I think that's the bottom line Q here. How does one make an informed decision?

P.S. Ralph, you mentioned that "[w]hen an amplifier that is a voltage source encounters the box resonance (impedance peak) it throttles back its power. This gets flat frequency response in theory." Ok, flip the facts, if you got a speaker with an impedance peak, I believe a Power Paradigm amp (tube) will put out the same wattage regardless of impedance peaks. Would that result in frequency response NOT being flat with a tube amp.

Sorry for my persistence. I'm just trying to get this concept down. And if I am confused, I bet other are too!

Thanks guys. I think your responses will help the rest of us ding-dongs be better buyers.

Thanks Al. As my system description says, I'm done with major changes and upgrades for now. Will still do some tweaking here and there, but my main focus will be on buying good quality vinyl and CDs. And then just enjoying what I have. As I've said before, ignorance is bliss, because I really enjoy whatever swill is coming out of my rig.

As I've also said before, something must be right because last night my wife came running into my man-cave/listening room and went nuts because the bass was shaking the floors. I think I was playing a new CD: T-Bone. Good music.

Funny thing is that my wife ran over to the sub and starting turning knobs and flipping switches hoping to turn the bass down. I "politely" [sic] invited her out of the basement. What she wound up doing was turning the gain on the woofer up to maximum. Ha Ha.

Well, I still find the technical side fascinating. So I hope guys like you don't mind my questions. I'm really trying to understand what makes audio sound good or bad.

Thanks to all and best wishes for Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!

Bruce