Current amp vs Voltage amp

Does it truly demand that much more high level engineering expertise to build flatter impedance speakers with better phase angles?

i personally think 'yes'. Empirically, we can all get this info by merely looking at the offerings in the marketplace. How many of the available speakers afford the user the use of a wide range of amplifiers with minimal hit in sonic performance? Each one of these speaker manuf claims to be highly qualified. Are they?

If that's the case then those who are capable of doing this deserve more respect and recognition for their achievement.

indeed they do! they really do as they have 'got' it. These particular speaker manuf rarely toot their own horn as a result they get forgotten & taken over by those who have eye-candy for speakers. IMO.

Attempting to make tube amps more compatible to drive certain speakers could potentially result in a loss of their instrinsic "sonic attributes".

This is a great discussion about the factors that go into good sound from a technical perspective.

Speaker/amp matching is perhaps the most important fundamental to get right first to achieve best results IMHO. Every system must have an amp and speakers and other things might help compensate but cannot replace a good amp/speaker match.

I am in the camp that says the happy path is to get the fundamentals right from a technical perspective first and tweak from there. Nothing is more fundamental than making sure the amp is up to the task of GETTING THE MOST out of the speakers.

ALso, shame on the high end audio industry for not making it easier for buyers to get the most out of these products. It would not be hard to come up with a quantitative system for the benefit of buyers to identify quality of amp/speaker matches. But the reality is its up to the buyer to be educated enough to make these decisions. Good luck! I suppose such a system would take a lot of the mystique out of high end audio, for better or for worse. I guess if it were beneficial to the vendors to do something like that, they would.

05-09-13: Charles1dad
Attempting to make tube amps more compatible to drive certain speakers could potentially result in a loss of their instrinsic "sonic attributes".

I think 'yes' if you don't make the tube amp big (& resultingly expensive). This seems to be the opinion of Al & Atmasphere as well. see quote below from Bifynne's post-

tube amp manufacturers will have to figure out a way to make their products able to do double duty and handle speakers that are designed and voiced to be driven by SS amps. Ralph and Al have made a point that such amps are heavy and costly.

For example, TRL (Tube Research Labs) makes a 800W/ch tube amp that can drive an Apogee Full Range speaker:
http://www.tuberesearchlabs.com/products/gt800.htm
no price mentioned. if you have to ask, you can't afford them! ;-)
They also make a 400W/ch power amp which is expensive!
http://www.tuberesearchlabs.com/products/gt400.htm & I believe that this will also drive a Full Range.
Steve Wolcott also makes some high power tube amps (might not be able to drive an Apogee but I'm sure that they can drive other tough speaker loads):
http://www.wolcottaudio.com/WA_presence.htm

yeah, the upshot is that to keep from losing it's tube attributes the tube amp will have to be big, bulky & expensive to drive tough loads.