> real drivers at two extremes:
Both stunningly low efficiency. Reckless disregard for the cost of amplifier power (a valid recklessness in today's world). Approximately equivalent to a good speaker with a whopping big series resistor.
> how close to a pure capacitance they are
Right. Removing the "wasteful" resistance is not a real advantage on non-huge speakers. You can tame an electrostat with a large series R. You tame the mass-capacitance of a dynamic with a large R.... serendipitously, we already have one.
For that matter, you could tame that big L that bothers Gontowski with a shunt R. It is wasteful midrange, until you put a cap in to block that. His point may be that this cap must be selected with care, not custom.
Both stunningly low efficiency. Reckless disregard for the cost of amplifier power (a valid recklessness in today's world). Approximately equivalent to a good speaker with a whopping big series resistor.
> how close to a pure capacitance they are
Right. Removing the "wasteful" resistance is not a real advantage on non-huge speakers. You can tame an electrostat with a large series R. You tame the mass-capacitance of a dynamic with a large R.... serendipitously, we already have one.
For that matter, you could tame that big L that bothers Gontowski with a shunt R. It is wasteful midrange, until you put a cap in to block that. His point may be that this cap must be selected with care, not custom.
