Pairing with difficult-to-drive speakers

Among all types of speakers that are difficult to play, speakers that are difficult to play also account for a certain proportion. Interestingly, although it is well known that many brands and models of speakers are difficult to play, there are still many people who "knowingly go to the tiger mountain", perhaps this is the nature of audiophiles. What
are speakers that are difficult to drive? They can be roughly divided into two categories: one is that the overall output energy of the speaker is low, or the output energy of the low-frequency band is low, and the other is that the positioning sense of the speaker is not ideal, the tone is not satisfactory, the fidelity is not enough, etc. This article will not discuss the second type of difficulty in driving.
The speaker is difficult to drive, which is just a superficial phenomenon. If you do some research, you will find that there are many reasons for it. Here are some simple analyses:

A. Insufficient output sound pressure. If you use the same amplifier to drive this type of speaker, you will obviously find that the output loudness is much lower than when driving other speakers. The typical representative of this type of speaker is the well-known 3/5A speaker. Since the impedance of the 3/5A speaker is usually between 11-16Ω, it means that compared with driving an 8Ω speaker, the amplifier has to output much more power than usual. Coupled with the very special 3/5A crossover, this box is difficult to serve. However, if there is no high requirement for the sound pressure level, then there is no such thing as difficult to drive.

B. Sensitivity factor, which has a certain relationship with insufficient output sound pressure. At present, many home speakers use small-caliber woofers. Due to the inherent physical characteristics, the bass of small speaker units is inherently lacking. When installed in the speaker, there will be a difference in sensitivity when it is matched with the tweeter. If the tweeter is 90 decibels at 5KHz and the woofer is 85 decibels at 50Hz, how to coordinate after installing it in the box? Although the structure of the box can be used to enhance some bass, in order to get a balanced sound, the only way is to use the crossover to reduce the sensitivity of the treble area to a level close to that of the bass. This means that the sensitivity of the entire speaker is also "dragged down" to 85 decibels. Although the overall balance of the speaker is normal at this time, the output power requirement of the amplifier is high when it is matched with the amplifier, because part of the output energy is consumed in the crossover network.

C Impedance matching, a pair of speakers with a nominal impedance of 8Ω usually refers to the impedance working at a certain frequency (such as 1KHz). At other frequencies, the impedance change curve fluctuates, and there will be impedances of several to twenty ohms. When encountering high impedance, the output power of the amplifier itself will be reduced, and at low impedance, the amplifier will be tested. If the amplifier has enough driving force, the output power will be increased, and if the driving force is not enough, the output in this frequency range will be reduced a lot. However, since the buyer cannot have a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of the speaker or amplifier itself, the actual effect can only be known after a period of trial whether the configuration is feasible.

D Characteristic matching refers to the coordination of the amplifier and the speaker in many aspects, including some known and unknown other factors. We often find that when some speakers are matched with amplifiers, it is possible that a powerful amplifier may not necessarily drive the speaker well, while a brand with average power can drive it like a fish in water. An amplifier that can produce satisfactory sound from other speakers will not "cooperate" when encountering a difficult-to-drive speaker. This shows that there are many mutually restrained and unknown factors between the speakers and the amplifiers. However, one thing is certain. Try to choose an amplifier without large loop feedback to minimize the influence of the non-cooperation between the speakers and the amplifiers.

E. Due to personality, some well-known speakers with a "reputation" of being difficult to drive are actually speakers with obvious personality. In other words, they have advantages in some aspects and are not good at some aspects. However, many audiophiles do not know, understand or even believe this. They always hope that the speakers should have a comprehensive performance, especially after buying expensive and famous speakers, they hope that all aspects should have excellent performance. In this way, speakers that were not difficult to drive before become really difficult to drive.

F. Regarding the bass problem, have you noticed that most difficult-to-drive speakers have a characteristic of less bass volume. In other words, if the bass volume of a certain speaker is sufficient and full, I guess there is no topic of difficulty to drive, because there are many audiophiles who like bass. What is puzzling is that speakers with good bass reproduction are not "rare items" and can be found in the products of most speaker manufacturers. However, many audiophiles just like "big-name" speakers. It doesn't matter if the bass is less. They can spend much more than the price of speakers to equip them with power amplifiers. Perhaps, they will argue that because the other aspects of the speaker are good, only the bass is a little lacking, so it is worth trying to match it with a high-priced power amplifier. The problem lies here. What if we change our thinking and think in reverse: It is precisely because of the lack of bass that the advantages in other aspects are revealed? ?

Simple reasoning and speculation seem to be a bit empty. I think I will give two examples of speakers as supplementary explanations.

The first speaker is the famous Dynaudio speaker.

How do you evaluate Dynaudio? First of all, I personally feel that it should have a "true face". It is meaningful to talk about Dynaudio under this true face. How to discover the true face? There are two ways. One is to accurately analyze and measure the design principles and performance characteristics of each large and small component in the speaker, especially the unit, to get the sound characteristics of the speaker. The other is to rely on pure practical methods to judge the sound characteristics of the speaker through a combination of multiple channels. For the first way, it is a little difficult, because non-professionals can only make some guesses from the appearance. For example, the paper cone suspension of the Dynaudio bass unit seems to be a little narrow. Let me make a bold guess: the overly narrow suspension will make the bass not soft enough. Looking at the second way, it is not very difficult, because there are already many audiophiles who have used Dynaudio. In summary, the basic evaluation is: clear, high resolution, high fidelity, only the bass section is less, and it needs to be driven by an amplifier of an unknown brand to get a full bass and ensure overall balance.

After the true face of Dynaudio was "revealed to the public", it was up to audiophiles to see how they would treat it. The first option was to honestly and fully appreciate and enjoy the unique charm of Dynaudio, and not to care about the slightly regrettable lack of low frequencies that others have always cared about. The second option was the countermeasures that many audiophiles usually used: racking their brains, frequently changing machines, and investing huge amounts of money to find an amplifier that could "handle" Dynaudio, and never give up until the bass that was originally lacking was "squeezed out". Therefore, the "difficult to drive" Dynaudio came into being.
In many cases, there is nothing wrong with the speaker manufacturer, it may be that the players like to play with "misalignment".
In fact, Dynaudio has now launched the DM series models with a lot of bass and are easy to drive. You can pay a little attention to them. In addition, observe whether the suspension edge of the paper cone is a little "wide".
Let's talk about the famous British brand ATC speakers. What is the "real face" of ATC? First, let's observe its appearance and structure. Its support system is a relatively tight design. Among speakers of similar volume, its vibration mass is relatively large. Then, let's "boldly" guess that this speaker has certain requirements for the driving force of the power amplifier, especially the driving force of the bass band. It needs a large "starting" power, which also means that it is difficult to play it well with a low-power power amplifier.
Audiophiles all think that the restoration degree of this box is very high. In fact, for the characteristics of ATC, what should be paid more attention to is that it still has a very low distortion under high power, which is rarely found in other speakers.
So how to play ATC? The prerequisite is that the front-end power amplifier and CD, sound source, etc. must have sufficient fidelity. The supplementary condition is to try to bring out its advantages under high power, restore its sense of speed and high sound quality, but unfortunately, finding such an amplifier is another difficult problem, similar to playing Dynaudio, after a long time of tossing, still can't find the north, and later, many people will find a "good medicine" - use a low-power tube amplifier to push, ha ha, so, I don't know who is "getting on the wrong sedan chair and marrying the wrong man".
Another difficult part of playing ATC is that you need to have enough patience and time to "burn in" the newly bought speakers, just like a motor vehicle has a "grinding cylinder" process. According to experienced people, it takes a long time to burn in the box. After burning in, it is considered to "officially" enter the "procedure" of equipment matching and debugging.
Many audiophiles, especially beginners, usually buy equipment from well-known brands, thinking that they can quickly complete the configuration of the equipment. However, in many cases, "haste makes waste", and once they "stick" to the famous difficult-to-drive speakers, it may become an "unfinished project" that no one knows when it will be "finished".
Of course, some audiophiles like "challenges", which is another matter.
Audio equipment, especially the terminal speaker equipment that needs to make sounds, is composed of many parts with their own physical properties, and this property is not subject to human will. Think about it, it is also a musical instrument that makes sounds. For example, if someone wants to make a "universal violin" that can capture the timbre of violins, violas, cellos, double basses, etc., everyone knows that it is almost an impossible task. So for speakers, isn't it the same?
The audio equipment market is actually a large collection of equipment with a wide variety of characteristics. Hard-to-drive, big-name equipment only accounts for a small part, while easy-to-drive, big-name equipment is also a large number. Sometimes, if you can get rid of the halo of big-name speaker reviews, you may find that hard-to-drive equipment is not necessarily the only choice for good sound.