Uppermidfi,
There's no benefit, in and of itself, in the lower impedance.
However, you have to remember that speaker design, like the
engineering of anything - is a series of trade-offs and
compromises.
The designer may trade-off a low impedance for some other
benefit.
My speakers are Apogee ribbons - notorious low impedance
amplifier killers.
Speaker drivers are motors - the force is proportional to
the magnetic field strength, the current, and the number
of turns in the voice coil.
A ribbon inherently is a single turn. Apogee used some of
the most powerful magnets available. The only way to get
the required force from a single turn driver was to up the
current - requiring low impedance.
These speakers are more difficult to drive than the average
speaker. It limits my choice of amplifier - a single-ended
triode tube amp is out of the question.
However, the speakers have some real advantages - and for
that I'm willing to pay the price of driving them with a
big beefy solid state amp.
Physics frequently excludes getting everything one wants in
a speaker - high efficiency, low bass, fine imaging...
Putting together a stereo system is a series of compromises
not unlike those faced by the engineers that design the
individual components of same.
I wouldn't put too much stake in what the impedance is.
Select your speakers, and then select an amp that can handle
the load they present.
Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist
There's no benefit, in and of itself, in the lower impedance.
However, you have to remember that speaker design, like the
engineering of anything - is a series of trade-offs and
compromises.
The designer may trade-off a low impedance for some other
benefit.
My speakers are Apogee ribbons - notorious low impedance
amplifier killers.
Speaker drivers are motors - the force is proportional to
the magnetic field strength, the current, and the number
of turns in the voice coil.
A ribbon inherently is a single turn. Apogee used some of
the most powerful magnets available. The only way to get
the required force from a single turn driver was to up the
current - requiring low impedance.
These speakers are more difficult to drive than the average
speaker. It limits my choice of amplifier - a single-ended
triode tube amp is out of the question.
However, the speakers have some real advantages - and for
that I'm willing to pay the price of driving them with a
big beefy solid state amp.
Physics frequently excludes getting everything one wants in
a speaker - high efficiency, low bass, fine imaging...
Putting together a stereo system is a series of compromises
not unlike those faced by the engineers that design the
individual components of same.
I wouldn't put too much stake in what the impedance is.
Select your speakers, and then select an amp that can handle
the load they present.
Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist