Double down, good or bad?


I came across this article on Atma Sphere's website:

http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/myth.html

In short, Atma Sphere believes having a power amp that is capable of doubling its power when impedance is half is not necessarily a good thing because speakers in general do not have a flat impedance across all freq range.

On paper, it does make sense. Though I am sure speaker designers take that into consideration and reduce/increase output where necessary to achieve the flatest freq response, that explains why most of the speakers measured by Stereophile or other magazines have near flat responses.

But what if designer use tube amps to design his speakers, mating them with solid state should yield higher bass output in general? Vice versa, tube amps yield less bass output at home?

I have always been a tube guy and learned to live with less bass weight/impact in exchange of better midrange/top end. Will one be better off buying the same exact amp the speakers were "voiced" with, not that it will guarantee good sound, at least not to everyone's ear.
semi

Showing 2 responses by gregm

If you pass on Ralphs' amps merely because they don't double down you are making a mistake
I agree. BTW, as Ralph's amps use tubes they do NOT double down. It's not a characteristic; They can do other things (like, operate safely without feedback). Indeed, some tube circuits half down!

Some one once noted that if an amp sounds good & measures bad, you're measuring the wrong things.
The virtue of an amps ability to double down just might depend on the speakers on which the amp is to be used on and the amp budget of the owner of those speakers
No, no, it's just a matter of the circuit. SS amps, by design (constant voltage), act like that. The ability is just a characteristic of the circuit.

Anyway, most SS amps do not DOUBLE down -- only their specs do: take an amp that measures 100W into 2ohms (not a bad amp that!), then spec it 50W into 4ohms & 25 into 8 ohm. This amp's selling spec is: 25W/8 ohm.