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Need speakers that can rock with just one watt? You found da place.

Re: what exactly is Hi Eff and why should I care?

Hello Flyingsod,

Welcome! Regardless of which direction you end up going in with your speakers, the more you know the better choices you are likely to make. High efficiency obviously isn't all things to all people, but a good high efficiency system can do some things extremely well.

Generally speaking, high efficiency speakers give you better dynamic contrast than low efficiency speakers. This is because of "power compression". Most home audio speakers don't give you an honest 3 dB increase in loudness for a doubling of input power - they give you more like 2.4 to 2.7 dB increase. So when a 20 dB peak comes along (happens all the time), you may only get 17 dB out of low efficiency speakers. Since musicians use dynamic contrast to convey emotion, some of the emotion in the performance is lost right there. Many high efficiency speakers have negligible power compression at typical in-home sound pressure levels simply because there is less wattage going into heating up the voice coils.

Second, high efficiency speakers have less change in tonal balance with change in volume level. It is much more likely that woofer and tweeter have very similar power compression characteristics at normal home listening levels (which are way below prosound levels). In the case of a single-driver speaker, obviously this won't even be a consideration.

Third, horn-based or single-driver-based speakers tend to have more uniform radiation patterns than multiway direct radiators do. So here I'm really advocating horn & single driver speakers for a reason that has nothing to do with efficiency. I can go into detail about the virtues and vices arising from loudspeaker radiation pattern issues if you would like.

Fourth, I'm among those who believe specialty tube amps (SET and OTL designs) sound better than other types of amplifiers, and high efficiency and/or easy-to-drive speakers are required with such amps.

On the other hand, high efficiency will cost you in real estate if you also want deep bass extension. High efficiency and deep bass simply cannot be combined in a small enclosure - at least not by speaker designers, who are limited by the laws of physics. Marketing departments are under no such constraints.

Duke


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