Montreal Audio Show - anyone hear the FR30’s?

Real question: Can someone explain why speaker manufacturers can’t be bothered to create true 8 ohm speakers at say, at least 90 db efficiency?  It’s just driver choice and engineering

That part of speaker design seems unforgivably lazy to me at the high end (let’s say $5,000+ speakers). Can’t these folks create something that lets users be more creative on their amplification?

Not everything needs to work with a 10 wpc SET - but why can’t makers build speakers that can run on amps weighing 40 pounds, instead of 100? - huge customer problem, hi-end is dying because of it (hi-end is still dying. TTs and headphones are healthy). No one wants to deal with that nonsense any more. It’s part of why the industry can’t attract younger enthusiasts (anyone who thinks the problem with hi end and young people is cost, are kidding themselves. 30 and under have crazy spending power.  Go to a watch auction sometime and see people spend real money. Go try and buy a 911 GT3 and find out lead times)

Sports car makers don’t try and sell 5,000 lb cars anymore 

Please, thoughts and explanations appreciated!

Perhaps it is not that easy to build a high efficiency speaker without incurring some other compromises or added cost.  A lot of the efficiency loss is in the complex networks that are used in some crossovers.  But, all those added elements are there for a purpose--smoothing out response, accounting for anomalies around the crossover point, accounting for baffle-step loss and diffraction, accounting for floor bounce interference, etc.  I once saw an advertisement for a YG Acoustic two-way that showed the crossover and it blew my mind--way more than a dozen capacitors, something like eight inductors, and I don't know how many resistors; their is a lot of power being burned off there (but, I sort of like the sound of that YG speaker).

From the speaker builder's perspective, it is easier to disregard efficiency when balancing other considerations because that is someone else's problem.  It is up to the amplifier manufacturers to supply the goods that can play these speakers.

I agree with you, by the way, but, I personally want WAY more than 90 db/w efficiency.  Something closer to 100 and 7-16 ohm nominal impedance would be nice for the kinds of amps I own.

And when one of the speaker manufacturer’s main businesses is higher power amplifiers, even less incentive, perhaps even negative incentive

Why?

Of course there is several reasons. 

One big reason is looks and with that WAF.

As a designer it starts here:

Hoffman’s Iron Laws of Speaker Building

1) Bass Extension

2) Efficiency

3) Small Enclosure

So you can choose two and the third is given to you.

If you want more extended Bass Extension and high efficiency (sensitivity) then you will have that but you will not get that in a small enclosure!

So you need a big ugly speaker enclosure and the market is not going for that. Sorry.

If you go for high efficiency (sensitivity) and a small enclosure then the bass extension is gone. That is not HiFi if you don't can hear full range.

But there is manufacturers that makes higher sensitivity and higher ohm speakers. So it is just to look elsewhere.

Here is two that heard FR30