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Loudspeaker sensitivity and dynamics: are the two inexorably linked?

Have been listening to quite a few speakers lately, and increasingly I've noticed that more sensitive speakers tend to have better microdyanmics - the sense that the sound is more "alive" or more like the real thing.

The speakers involved include my own Magico A5's, Joseph Audio Pulsar 2's, and  Wilson Watt/Puppy 7's, as well as others including the Magico M3, Wilson Alexia V, various Sonus Faber's, Magnepan's,  Borressen's, and Rockport models (Cygnus and Avior II).

A recent visit to High Water Sound in NYC topped the cake though: proprietor and vinyl guru Jeff Catalano showed off a pair of Cessaro horns (Opus One) that literally blew our minds (with a few listening buddies).  The Cessaro's sensitivity is rated at 97 db, highest among the aforementioned models.  That system was very close to live performance - and leads to the topic.

I'm not referring to maximum loudness or volume, rather that the music sounds less reproduced and more that the instrumentation and vocals are more real sounding through higher sensitivity speakers.

Is this a real phenomenon?  Or is it more the particular gear I've experienced?

Thoughts?

bobbydd

Showing 1 response by deep_333

deep_333
1,897 posts
 

I've heard plenty of high efficiency speakers: Klipsch Forte, Heresy IV, La Scalla, etc., JBL L82, Zu, and others, and all the ones I've heard,  trade off their efficiency for (IMO) less than optimum timbral accuracy, lack of a focused and layered soundstage, greater frequency response aberrations. And most of them, to me, seem to create a veneer of sounding like a PA system, that overlays everything. 

@simonmoon , this has to be the post of the month!

@bobbydd 

Not 'inexorably linked' at all....Since high fidelity gobs of power is quite affordable these days, it is largely silly to chase high sensitivity speakers any more.

My Schweikerts rated at  88db are explosively dynamic and will startle the living daylights out of you.

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