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What is your take on high efficient speakers vs. low efficient speakers?

Consider both designs are done right and your other equipment is well matched with the speakers.  Do you have any preference when it comes to sound quality?  Is it matter of economic decision when it comes to price? - power amps can become very expensive when power goes up, on the other hand large,  efficient speakers are expensive as well.  Is your decision based on room size?  I'd love to hear from you on the subject. 

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Showing 3 responses by ditusa

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,724 posts
 

 Everything else being equal, I will take a high efficiency speaker any day over a low-efficiency one.

I agree 100%!

Mike

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,724 posts
 

@stereo5,

See chart below:

Mike

 
Sensitivity in dB = 112 + 10 log (efficiency)
 
 Efficiency = 10(Sensitivity in dB – 112)/10 
 

 

Loudspeaker data
Efficiency  Percent  Sensitivity
0.2        20 % 105 dB
0.1        10 % 102 dB
0.05       5 %   99 dB
0.02       2 %   95 dB
0.01       1 %   92 dB
  0.005     0.5 %   89 dB
  0.002     0.2 %   85 dB
  0.001     0.1 %   82 dB

 

105 dB is very efficient and 82 dB is very inefficient
ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,724 posts
 

@johnk wrote:

I prefer high efficiency but I don’t undersize my systems so I get bass into the 20-30hz range on most systems. I find higher eff designs to have a more realistic sound quality if done right. But many are too compromised in size. But sadly so are most of the loudspeakers offered today. Shipping costs and material costs all lead to smaller and smaller designs. I get 1 tear in my eye at audio shops it’s all too small.

My sentiment exactly!

Also, per the comments above regarding horn speakers not imaging, my JBL hybrid horn speakers image well. The JBLs have an efficiency of 2.7% they were manufactured in 1981. Happy imaging! 😎

Mike

 

 

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