Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

RE: "Lower efficient speakers, for what reason?"

I suppose that "not so efficient" speakers exist for a very good reason: So that the use of horns might be avoided.

You'll never read or hear a nursery rhyme that goes, "Little boy blue, come shake your panel; the sheep are in the meadows, the cows are in the canal." And that's partly because horns are the best way to make a speaker that is ultra-efficient, no doubt about it. But at what cost?

It is very hard to design a truly good horn, and it seems that even the best ones color the sound to some degree. Good horns are expensive. Full-range horn systems are relatively huge, often requiring a wide and long room in order to sound their best. Horns can be very ugly, very low "WAF" indeed.

Remove those horns and make gains in many important parameters, while losing electrical efficiency. This is the story of modern loudspeaker design, because there is no perfect way.



Edits: 02/02/16 02/02/16 02/02/16 02/02/16

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