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Which taps 8 or 4 ohm for electrostats?

Hi Everyone,

I have a pair of Martin Logan Ascents which are nominal 4 ohms, dipping to 1.2 ohms at 20kHz. I am using the 4 ohm taps on my ARC VT100.

Someone mentioned that these types of speakers tend to look capacitive in nature to the amp, and have greatly varying impedance values. If they are indeed capacitive, it would seem to reason that most of the fundamental notes would be in an area of possibly greater impedance.

Has anyone tried this combination of amp with stats using the 8 ohm tap? Would this be "harder" on the amp (tubes)? I am not to concerned about the 1.2 ohm at 20 KHz, as I can not imagine there is much at that frequency other than over tones.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Ron
rlips

Showing 1 response by denf

denf
241 posts
 
Good points and questions raised here. My personal experience has been better using the "4 ohm" taps.

Another one I was pondering on (I too own Prodigy's, and own tube amps) is, because of the severe drop in impedence at the high frequency extremes, does this tend to make a tube design "roll them off" a little to some extent?

I seem to get better high frequency extension and "air" with a solid state amp, but the mids are magical.

Can anyone comment on this?
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