@benanders wrote:
Consider speaker design category (e.g. in your mention - K-horns) not just brand. Format of the driver arrangements can be a good predictor of efficiency, and past that it will matter if you like the way a given speaker model sounds.
+1
@hilde45 --
My "journey" in the high efficiency element of speakers has had the focus of maintaining good power response ("energy coherency"/dispersion pattern matching) at the crossover region from horn- or waveguide hybrid solutions, as well as the advantages offered from all-horn speakers. Main goal through it all, apart from other traits of high efficiency: better coherency via a more range uniform speaker-room interaction, and ultimately also less interference from the acoustic environment.
The important thing with all-horns and the very high efficiency they offer is trying to achieve proper size of the horns to actually have them act like horns in the entire frequency region they cover. This is not trivial for a variety of reasons, and when achieved will give the better outset to work from with this design choice. If size is an issue, and it usually is, a horn- or waveguide hybrid solution (i.e.: in conjunction with a direct radiating element) can be the preferred route, but here as well it is important to have proper dispersion pattern match at the crossover(s) for aided coherency, and depending on the overall physical stature of the speakers (and goals wrt. limiting and controlling overall dispersive nature) this can lead to quite large speakers.
Initially my going towards the high efficiency segment of speakers came from wanting to avoid dome tweeters to achieve better power response and overall coherency. Waveguide-fitted Amphion speakers were tried out, then S.P. Technology speakers (also waveguide), hORNS (w/OSWG waveguide), and ultimately very high efficiency all-horn speakers from Simon Mears to what I have now: a combination of large format mids/tweeter horns with large direct radiating woofer/mids and tapped horn-loaded subs. My ultimate goal would be ending up with a properly sized all-horn solution eventually.
As for speaker recommendation, this is more difficult to assess in relation to your taste and speaker history, not that your purchase history here should necessarily be any indication for what’s to come onwards. However I’m thinking used JBL K2 S9800(SE), which are very good speakers, or used JBL M2’s actively configured. For all-horns you could try out used Klipsch K-horns, which can be retrofitted with better mids and tweeter horn + drivers and crossover from Greg Roberts of Volti Audio. This would also make the use of lower powered amps more obvious with the K-horns’ very high eff. The JBL’s ideally should be fed with more power, I find, but here you could try out bi-amping and different amp combinations. The latest iteration Klipsch Cornwall speakers are popular. Oh, well - the list is long..