2. speakers
  3. 163075-147550

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 lalitk

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,102 posts
 
Thank you @jetter. I am now spoiled, probably never going to buy another multi-driver speaker. Beautiful, effortless sound! 
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,102 posts
 
@b_limo,

Thanks for sharing the video. Ever since I traded my 92db efficiency speakers for 96db efficiency speakers, I have been living on easy street. Another advantage is the compatibility with flea watts amps to pure class A. 
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,102 posts
 
@larryi,

You may wanna add Tannoy Canterbury Prestige GR speaker to your list of speakers that has exemplified themselves in achieving excellent tonal balance from a single driver.

The Canterbury’s sports a 15-inch dual concentric single chassis driver that incorporates two separate drive units, integrated into one. If you like, you can further read about the merits of dual concentric driver on Tannoy website. Here I wanted to express briefly, the frequency response from 15” driver is pretty flat throughout the entire audible frequency range. The Canterbury’s are excellent speakers capable of delivering very detailed, integrated, dynamic and warm sound. I also dig their traditional look with exquisite birch plywood cabinetry and champagne gold metalwork :-)
More to discover