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

The best performance comes from electrostatic speakers. They are generally mid efficiency speakers but are very amps sensitive and owner sensitive. Otherwise it is 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other. The best performance I have heard come out of dynamic loudspeakers came from inefficient speakers driven by huge amplifiers. 

@johnnycamp5 , Then I guess you need more experience and I am not trying to be harsh. I really mean it. I went through life as an inexperience audiophile for decades. Then I got involved in the business directly and was exposed to hundreds of systems and I was responsible for designing at least 50 of them, all very high end for the time. I am also extremely inquisitive and structured. I AB equipment all the time and have learned to divorce my imagination from the process.

It is also quite possible to make the finest systems sound terrible. Very few of us have actually listened to a SOTA system and do not know how much performance is available and what it sounds like. 

@charles1dad , ESLs do not necessarily require large SS amplifiers. You can also use a large tube amp like the Atma-Sphere MA 2. 

The difference between my own personal way of thinking about this is simple, There is accuracy and there is "taste." Accuracy includes the whole system including the room. I always start with accuracy and throw my taste on top at the end. Most people start with taste and never really deal with accuracy which requires choosing the right equipment for the right reasons and the hardware to measure and adjust it's performance in the room. So then why ESLs, more accurately why 8 foot dipole ESLs? They have the lowest levels of distortion within the audio band and coloration of any type of speaker. Dipole linear arrays have ideal dispersion characteristics for preventing detrimental room interaction. Linear arrays broadcast sound more efficiently which is why they are used at large rock concerts. The only serious problem that should be dealt with is dipole ESLs do not like making bass. Below 100 Hz should be sent to a driver specifically designed to make low bass and doing so decreases distortion throughout the rest of the audio band to a significant degree and increases headroom to the point where the system is capable of doing an effortless 105 dB, not that you should.

@charles1dad , Yes, realism could be the final goal. How do you get to realism? How realistic can you get? Many of us do not even think about realistic. It is viewed as an unrealistic goal. Not true at all. Given the right recording a system can sound scary realistic and I do not mean with just an acoustic guitar either. It can be done with full on rock and jazz. It can be done with equipment that is not Luxury Audio. There are also several roads that lead to Rome. Of the three systems that met my criteria for realism one was a three way dynamic system and the other two were based on very different types of ESL. Three systems out of hundreds including the ones I designed (under the wishes and pocketbook of persons usually more interested in fancy decor and artwork than music.)  Many of them were owned by audiophile friends. Some of them were mine. 

Among audiophiles there is significant variance in expectations and priorities. Someone is bound and determined to set himself up with a SET amp because he heard one he thought sounded good, in a totally different environment than his own listening room. Now he can't get the volume he would like on some recordings so he goes out and gets a set of high efficiency loudspeakers which are not capable of performing as well as the ones he had (with the right amp) but they go loud and he is happy. Then there is the confusion generated by unintentional psychological disinformation. There are people who will swear their system improved by putting their cables on elevators. All of a sudden everyone is selling cable elevators. So what is an English Major to think? While guys like my are laughing under our breath. 

Accuracy gets you in the ballpark, taste gets you to realistic, both get you evicted. 

SET amplifiers are about as silly as cable elevators.

@phusis , horns are a very alluring proposition. They are efficient and there is no question they can play louder than any other type of system with low levels of distortion. You can also control the radiation pattern to limit room interaction, another big plus. Unfortunately they fall short for a number of reasons. There is no such thing as a full range horn. You are forced into having a crossover somewhere in the midrange or upper bass. Many horn systems run a dynamic woofer well into the midrange, so much for low distortion. It would be a complicated mess trying to make a line source horn system.

Line Source systems are the only way to get into the first 10 rows. ESLs can cover 100 to 18 kHz no problem, no crossover. They maintain the lowest distortion levels throughout that range. Crossing to a sub at 100 Hz is much less of a problem especially if done with steep digital filters. The only disadvantage ESLs have relative to horns is that they are much less efficient. The fact that they won't play as loud is not a problem because they will do 105 dB and anything louder than 100 dB is certainly damaging your hearing. 

I am a huge proponent of actively driving loudspeakers. This does not mean that all the wizardry has to be within the loudspeaker. You can actively drive any loudspeaker with outboard components. I have been doing it for 20 or so years. There is no other way to get the absolute most out of any system and this is not IMHO. I have seen, heard and measured enough to know this is a fact. If there are any downsides to this they are far outweighed by the benefits. Trying to maintain a totally analog system is like owning a vintage Corvette. If you are a track junkie you will go a lot faster in a C8. I'm not into owning antiques. I like driving fast.

@phusis we have to disagree about something. Try driving an ESL with a SET amp. Do I smell something burning?

You can get good sound with passive systems and I have heard one passive system that got very close to the absolute sound but, you can take any passive system and make it better within the limits of the equipment and room. 

@larryi , you can get reasonable sound out of a SET amp with efficient speakers but you will never get to the absolute sound. It is a path with a dead end. 

What is the Absolute Sound? Go to Boston Symphony hall and sit 10th row dead center. Got to a small Jazz club and sit up front. Close your eyes and listen to each instrument. That is the Absolute Sound. This can be done in a home environment and there are several paths to this result but there are certain approaches that simply will not get you there. They may have a pleasing result but not a chance at Absolute Sound. 

If you can close your eyes and feel like you are at a small jazz club you are on the right path. Cable elevators excluded

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@charles1dad , I said "FEEL" like you are in a small Jazz club. I hate to be a stick in the mud but forgetting about SET, amps higher powered amplifiers have trouble getting low bass right. If you thick a SET amp can get even close you and I live in different universes. SET amps are for hobbyists, the guys who like short wave radios. To each his own for sure but I am talking about a specific level of performance one in a thousand systems might reach and not one of them will have a SET amp. 

@charles1dad , dogmatic maybe, presumptuous, not at all. What you are listening to is a study in colored inaccuracy. You can like it all you want but calling it accurate is a big stretch.