Speaker sensitivity vs SQ


My first thread at AG.

Millercarbon continues to bleat on about the benefits of high sensitivity speakers in not requiring big amplifier watts.
After all, it's true big amplifiers cost big money.  If there were no other factors, he would of course be quite right.

So there must be other factors.  Why don't all speaker manufacturers build exclusively high sensitivity speakers?
In a simple world it ought to be a no-brainer for them to maximise their sales revenue by appealing to a wider market.

But many don't.  And in their specs most are prepared to over-estimate the sensitivity of their speakers, by up to 3-4dB in many cases, in order to encourage purchasers.  Why do they do it?

There must be a problem.  The one that comes to mind is sound quality.  It may be that high sensitivity speakers have inherently poorer sound quality than low sensitivity speakers.  It may be they are more difficult to engineer for high SQ.  There may be aspects of SQ they don't do well.

So what is it please?

128x128clearthinker

Showing 3 responses by johnk

Large size costs more in all ways more to build, ship, store more materials used more finish applied. It's just the way it is. Size is one of the most costly parts of horns.
Costs for high-eff drivers are greater, Size high- eff designs are larger can cost more to build ship take up more room at dealers and distributors. And I will also add that buyers don't want changes. And they have been told for decades that all horns are problematic and they bought the line that small is better. Face it would you buy a toaster that was better than others but was larger and looked not like a toaster? We are simple tools and want to blend in and conform with others not to stand out.
Community made the best horn designs even today we haven't equaled what they offered during the 1970s. Their multi cells are by far the most advanced on earth the leviathan and the radials all not bettered by modern designs. I have been beta testing for a few companies they know I have many horn types to use the horns they made to go with there new designs are just based on older designs but are smaller. So while it is possible to design better horns today we don't because of the size and costs to build them.