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

@kennyc wrote:

Some members seem to advocate whether high efficiency speakers are better or not. Sonics is my priority not speaker efficiency. I only address speaker efficiency if it is required/driven by a sonic goal- wanting to hear flea watt 300b tube amp magic which would necessitate a very efficient speaker.

High efficiency speakers aren’t necessarily better, but high eff. in itself can have a significant advantage going for it that impacts (or is brought to realization by) a range of factors like size, driver types, acoustic transformation and dispersion characteristics, and this in turn has sonic implications that’s also about ’different’ rather than just better/worse. It’s not like we have two pair of speakers that look exactly alike with the same drivers and all and a similar frequency response with the one pair being low eff. and the other high eff. Comparing high eff. speakers with low eff. dittos comes with several factors "interfering" that are linked to high eff., but extracting high eff. from that "equation" would seem to shortchange the bigger picture of what’s involved and that has significance sonically.

A very high eff. speaker system over its entire spectrum with a wide frequency range (say, down to 20Hz) will by necessity be large to indeed very large and horn-loaded (its total size depending on the specific implementation of the upper bass to midrange horn in particular). If well implemented and given proper horn size and acoustic surroundings (i.e.: mostly about size also), such an all-horn system to my ears potentially is in a very different league compared to smaller, low eff. speakers, with a sound that’s much more akin to a live event presentation, be that acoustic or amplified. To some this quality mayn’t be of vital importance, nor may they be able to or don’t want to accommodate such a system in their surroundings (cost may also be a factor), but nevertheless these qualities are undeniable and on full display.

As with many things as well as high efficiency and its significance though, it depends.

inna wrote:  "Bass gives a foundation. This is a very big disadvantage of high efficiency design. "

I respectfully beg to differ.  My fully horn loaded DIY speakers have a measured output at 25 Hz that is identical to the 1kHz reference.  There is an 18sdB/octave roll off below 25 Hz.  This is accomplished with Bill Fitzmaurice designed HT Tuba folded corner horns which have a sensitivity of about 103 or 104 dB/2.83v/meter.

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I had Usher speakers with proper amplification.  I enjoyed the sound but they had to be played at a moderate to high volume to provide full sound, proper bass.    I now have Tekton speakers and find the sound full, with proper bass at lower volume.