Efficient speakers -- What was your journey from A to B to ?

I have no doubt that the Volti speakers are great performers. I have not heard them, but I dealt with Greg Roberts a few years ago when I bought his xovers for a pair of Khorns. He's a great guy to deal with and knows his stuff. I bet his speakers sound awesome.

I have had the gamut of speakers including magnepan, von schweikert, Wilson, and a host of others. Around 2013 a friend of mine brought over an early pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers. Like a crack dealer on the corner, he got me hooked.

I immediately sought out a pair of Cornwall II speakers which were about a two hour drive away. This put me on a path to horns. I strayed away a couple of times, but came back. Here is the list of what I would call high efficiency that I have owned.

Klipsch Cornwall II

Crites Cornscala C

GR Research Super V (around 95 db)

Klipsch Forte III

Klipschorn

Spatial Audio X3 (96 db)

Klipsch Cornwall IV

Klipsch Lascala II

I have landed with the LS II and an Aric Audio Super 300B SET. Once you get your system dialed in and speakers positioned in the room correctly, all those horn nasties that people go on and on about just disappear. I can’t see myself going back to speakers that require an arc welder to drive. Just something about the dynamics of high sensitivity speakers and the way they let the music flow into the room.

Be advised that even though the X3 from Spatial Audio is 96 db, I found that I could NOT drive it with the amp I had at the time, a Decware Torii II. Once I got into the 50-100 watt range, the speakers sounded pretty good. But the Decware (at 20 wpc) could not do it.

Curious how people would react to the assertion, "Klipsch speakers need a more careful pairing than other similar speakers." That would be helpful, possibly, as a data point.

@hilde45 

I do think one needs to pay more attention to supporting gear when going with klipsch. That said, the current models of Heritage speakers are more forgiving and linear than older versions. If what you heard was something out of the 70s or 80s (even 90s), then what is available now is a different animal. My LS II are vintage 2019 and you would be hard pressed to hear anything "shouty" about them with any type of recording.

But better source components and amplification will get the most out of klipsch speakers, no doubt. And proper positioning and room treatments. These are, of course, things that make any speaker shine. But may be more important with horns.