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The under appreciated impedance curve

One thing that a lot of audiophiles don't look at or don't know how to interpret is the impedance curve. I call it the honesty curve too.

Of course, most audiophiles know to look for high imepedance speakers for tubes, and that low impedance speakers are going to be more amplifier demanding.

I also look for:


  • A drop in impedance at 100 Hz at or below 3 Ohms - Indicates "amplifier sensitive"
  • A ragged magnitude instead of simple, clearly defined humps. If the impedance is ragged it indicates highly equalized components.


One speaker which breaks both of these rules was just reviewed at Stereophile, the Wilson Yvette.


https://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-yvette-loudspeaker-measurements



Like all things, there are no absolutes but these are the things I look for in a speaker. What do you look for in the impedance curve?
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by soix

soix
10,015 posts
 
I can't for the life of me understand why manufacturers aren't required to state minimum impedance, and would be nice to know what frequency it occurs at as well.  That's not a hard ask, is it?  Nominal impedance is a near USELESS spec to me.  

One example, my buddy's Martin Logans dip to 2 Ohms, but it occurs at 2Khz so not as tough a load as it would be at 200Hz.  This is such critical information to know when purchasing a speaker, I almost can't believe they don't make it more transparent. 
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