No one says it better than Al! the only thing to add, is that many tube amplifiers will sound "better" driving a higher impedance load, which I am sure Al and Atmasphere can provide the technical back-up for. This is reported to be especially true for output transfomerless (OTL) tube amps, which is the reason that some people use impedance multiplying devices like the Speltz boxes between OTLs and lower impedance speakers. Just to show that, generally, you can't generalize, many people report that Sound Lab electro-stats mate very well w OTL amps, and they have a low pretty low impedance at some frequencies.
Relate sensitivity/impedance to speaker efficiency
Can you help me relate speaker sensitivity and impedance to how efficient speakers are relative to one another?
What I mean is, given 2 speakers with the same or similar sensitivity (say 89 or 90), if one has a nominal impedance of 4 and another has a nominal impedance of 6, would the higher impedance speaker be easier to drive? Would the higher impedance speaker perhaps offer more flexibility in amplification (perhaps allowing the use of tubes?
What matters more for ease of amplification - a speaker with higher sensitivity or a speaker with a higher nominal impedance? (i.e. given similar nominal impedance, going from a speaker with a sensitivity of 87/88 to one with a sensitivity of 90/91; or given a similar sensitivity, going from a speaker with a nominal impedance of 4 to one with a nominal impedance of 6 or 8?)
I realize the answer to these questions is probably more complex, but are there some general rules to use as guidelines before actually trying the speakers out?
What I mean is, given 2 speakers with the same or similar sensitivity (say 89 or 90), if one has a nominal impedance of 4 and another has a nominal impedance of 6, would the higher impedance speaker be easier to drive? Would the higher impedance speaker perhaps offer more flexibility in amplification (perhaps allowing the use of tubes?
What matters more for ease of amplification - a speaker with higher sensitivity or a speaker with a higher nominal impedance? (i.e. given similar nominal impedance, going from a speaker with a sensitivity of 87/88 to one with a sensitivity of 90/91; or given a similar sensitivity, going from a speaker with a nominal impedance of 4 to one with a nominal impedance of 6 or 8?)
I realize the answer to these questions is probably more complex, but are there some general rules to use as guidelines before actually trying the speakers out?