Impedance or sensitivity?

If the speaker has been reviewed in Stereophile, John Atkinson's measurements at the end of the review will usually provide useful commentary on how easy or difficult the speaker is to drive. That commentary will be based on the plot that is presented of the magnitude and phase angle of the speaker's impedance as a function of frequency, as well as its sensitivity. You can search for a review of a particular speaker at their site or via Google.

The most severe combination of circumstances would be a speaker that has low sensitivity, an impedance magnitude that drops to low values in the bass region (where lots of energy is usually required), and an impedance phase angle that is highly capacitive (i.e., that has a large negative value) at frequencies where the impedance magnitude is low.

Another point to be careful about is whether the speaker's sensitivity is defined with respect to 1 watt, or with respect to 2.83 volts. For an 8 ohm speaker (that is truly 8 ohms) it makes no difference, as 2.83 volts into 8 ohms corresponds to 1 watt. However, 2.83 volts into 4 ohms corresponds to 2 watts, so a 4 ohm speaker that produces 90db in response a 2.83V input produces only 87db in response to 1 watt. 2.83 volts into 6 ohms corresponds to 1.33 watts, which means that a 6 ohm 90db/2.83V speaker produces about 88.75db in response to 1 watt.

At the same time, keep in mind that the power capability of a solid state amp will increase essentially in proportion to a decrease in load impedance, up to some limit. A tube amp, on the other hand, will typically have a much smaller increase in power capability as load impedance decreases, while exhibiting a smaller decrease in power capability as load impedance increases. Those differences between the two kinds of amplifiers can have important implications with respect to tonal balance, as well as with respect to drive difficulty. See Atmasphere's paper on that subject.

Regards,
-- Al

In my opinion the impedance curve is more important. We had an opportunity to exhibit at THE SHOW in Las Vegas with FritzSpeakers. The Carbon 7's are 87dB sensitive. One would think this would not be a good match for a 300B zero feedback SET amp rated at 10 watts. However, the Carbon 7's are 6 ohm minimum and a very smooth impedance curve that matched up with the 6 ohm output transformers very nicely. We were getting very loud levels with no distortion from the amp. Several people were amazed at the fact that the combo could actually work let alone sound as good as it did.

Typical, but another excellent post by Al(Almarg).

So often, the published literature of a loudspeaker does not offer much useful insight, but the plot that comes with JA's Stereophile measurements more than justifies a subscription to the magazine.

I agree with Clio09 as a moderate to high impedance level 'with' a smmoth/relatively flat curve is very favorable to low power tubes.Sensitivity determines ultimate sound pressure levels but in terms of ease of driving a speaker its impedance.

My speaker has a 14 ohm load(10 watt minimum) and my 8 watt 300b amp just seems effortless driving them with any genre of music. Clio09`s experience with the Fritz speaker makes sense to me.

Another point associated with Al's is that not all amps will drive reactive loads properly.
Some amps which are good into resistors will fall flat on the face when confronted with reactive loads....especially at lower impedance.

So, couple a 'powerful' (into resistors) amp with a hi-sensitivity speaker which really is a bad/reactive/lo-impedance load and there 'ya go......oooops.

For the OP example? Let's see some phase data.