Speaker impedance patterns - how to read them?


I know this has probably been discussed ad nauseam, but here's my question. I'm grateful for any sensible opinion.

Premise.
A speaker system may have a complex impedance pattern that can vary from 3-ohms to 30-ohms depending on frequency. Some speaker systems with similar impedance patterns may be stated as being 8-ohm loads because the speaker is 8 ohm in an important part of its frequency response, but only there.
A tube amp, as a voltage amplifier, likes a regular impedance pattern. Almost no speaker system has a constant, regular impedance pattern. I am aware that solid state, powerful amps are built to compensate for modern speakers' complex impedance patterns, but there are tube amps around and people who love them. It's difficult to understand what average load a given speaker system will present to the amp.

Question.
When looking for suitable speakers for a tube amp - mine is a PrimaLuna EVO 100, 40w x 2 from EL34s - what must be looked at? How to best interpret the impedance pattern, whenever available? Assuming that one listens at normal levels in a medium-sized room, what are the criteria for matching speaker and amp?

Thanks for your views. M.
martinguitars

Showing 1 response by dynamiclinearity

Basically the frequency response of an amp with a low damping factor(high output impedance) will be affected by the peaks and dips of the speaker. The amp even if it's flat into a test resistor will not be flat into a reactive speaker load. The amp response will have dips and peaks at the same places as the speaker impedance curve. How big these will be depends on the damping factor(which can vary with frequency by the way). The higher the damping factor the smaller the changes in response until the damping factor is high enough so the amplifier frequency response is flat with the speaker.

I recall a letter years ago to Hi Fi News that said that using very low resistance speaker cables minimized the affect for low damping factor amps. Frequency response was shown for normal resistance cables which exhibited the frequency variation. But with very thick cables(about 4 gauge if I recall correctly) the frequency variation essentially was gone. But this was before modern cable technology and just changing to very low gauge cables will probably also affect other variables in cables which may or may not be good.