Sensitivity 86 v 90


I am considering an upgrade from speakers with a sensitivity rating of 90 db, 4 ohms, to larger speakers rated at 86db, 8 ohms nominal.  Same brand, PMC. My tube integrated amp is 80-112 watts triode/ultralinear, and it’s fine for my 90 db speakers.  Although, it is sometimes at around 4 o’clock on the volume control, approaching the max at 6.  I am aware of the “amp power must double for each 3db increase in volume” rule of thumb, but really have no practical experience with this.  I do like having 90 db efficiency, always assumed that meant a less powerful amp would suffice. 

   My question is, would the decreased efficiency be a concern? 

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Showing 1 response by waytoomuchstuff

"would the decreased efficiency be a concern? "

Short answer: "probably not". In fact, the possibility exists that the new speakers will play louder.

Not knowing what the new (or existing) speakers are, I’m going to render a guess and predict the new speakers are larger -- i.e. bigger, and badder.

This being the case(?):

The existing speakers, by comparison, will have smaller and/or fewer drivers. All speakers have limited dynamic headroom via finite speaker piston area, travel, etc. Therefore, even though nothings sounds "wrong" with your current speakers, there is audible (and, measurable) dynamic compression which will improve when more and/or larger drivers are introduced into the equation (and, the listening room). Even IF the sensitivity of the new speakers is (somewhat) less, this could be more than made up for in gains in dynamic headroom because of more/larger drivers coupling with the air in the room.

As others have suggested, pairing your exising rig (a lot of audiophiles like to refer to their stuff as a "rig") with the target speakers may be most "efficient" way to arrive at a conclusion.