Rrog, An example in ss amps is the Harman Kardon amp(s) in the Citation series years ago when hk abandoned their decent quality American-made amps for the Japanese-made lower quality amps after they bought Levinson. Not that there's anything wrong with Japanese-made per say. I think their 4-8ohm taps were to compensate for a less muscular amp that could not handle a 4 ohm load except at the expense of sound quality. And I think this device in ss is sometimes used to compensate for an anemic amp. I'm always suspicious when I see this device in ss, but I realize it has its place. My predjudice also comes from my dislike of switches which degrade sound quality.
I apparently didn't articulate my initial point very well because I surely don't have anything against using the tap that sounds the best as long as it doesn't cause damage to the amp. That's kinda the whole point of the tap. I don't have a technical background as some of you know, but I do understand in general impedence matching of amp and speakers. There is an optimum load for every amp. That is the point of the taps and the point of autoformers, a device used to find that optimum load. Lynne
I apparently didn't articulate my initial point very well because I surely don't have anything against using the tap that sounds the best as long as it doesn't cause damage to the amp. That's kinda the whole point of the tap. I don't have a technical background as some of you know, but I do understand in general impedence matching of amp and speakers. There is an optimum load for every amp. That is the point of the taps and the point of autoformers, a device used to find that optimum load. Lynne