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I'm asking this question on the music forum because this is the one place where the most classical music lovers are to be found.
I am constantly reading posts about the need for highly sensitive speakers to capture "leading edges" and "transients".
But when I think of dynamic classical music, I think of the symphonies of the likes of Mahler, Sibelius and Bruckner (my favorites anyway). These symphonies have large "dynamic swings", true, but the music being played is by large symphonies with lots of musicians and lost of instruments playing from soft to loud and back again. I don't see how it's possible to pick out the details of "leading edges" and "transients" from any single instrument or set of instruments.
So, as long as one's speakers don't clip or come to close it, and distortion is not readily noticeable in the loudest parts, what is the great benefit of +100 dB speakers to enjoy, say Bruckner's 9th?
Someone explain, please. I keep thinking I have to improve on my 90 dB sensitive speakers to better hear my favorites. But I don't know what I am missing with what i already have. These symphonies all sound gorgeous to me.
Observe, don't think
Follow Ups:
As someone else suggested below, it is not just the volume on the loud end, but also the soft end, that really high-efficiency speakers excel at. For most musicians, nothing does orchestral music, and especially it's extremely sudden dynamic swings, like horn speakers driven by tube electronics. Listen to a pair of horns of at least 101dB efficiency and you will hear what I mean, and you will probably never go back. There is a reason all those great Mercury recordings from the "golden age" were mastered using Altecs and McIntosh amps.
Stream of Shiraz-induced consciousness rant...Perhaps it is less about efficiency per se and more about lowish driver QTS; quicker cone start and stop/self damping. Note (that for other variables being constant) that lower QTS drivers have stronger magnets and (generally) higher efficiency, but tend to work 'better' in larger cabinets and with higher output impedance amplifiers. Almost as if the efficiency is a byproduct; a byproduct that makes the use of fine sounding high impedance/low power SET amps desirable.
You could use a low QTS driver (eg. ls5a) with an arc welder, but the results will generally be less 'satisfactory' on demanding music than say a large (not Lowther sized - they are small) low QTS driver based speaker with a nice high output impedance amp (eg. quality zero NFB SET or triode PP amp).
Cheers.
Edits: 04/27/12 04/27/12
... you should also have truly Stygian bass. A slightly overdamped bass alignment might be best, but in any case the bass should be both plentiful and deep. Mahler likes to plumb the depths.
"He was one of those men who live in poverty so that their lines of questioning may continue." - John Steinbeck
Just for fun last week I measured with my sound level meter how loud
I was actually playing the loudest passages of a symphony, in this case
Bruckner 9th. And guess what it was only 88 db and this was pretty loud, most of the time I would play at about 85 db.
Now my speakers are 92 db efficient which tells me that in theory
I would only use 1/2 watt of power at peaks.
I do not know how loud you play your symphonies but I am sure that you
do not need 100 db efficient speakers.
I only have a 30 W/channel amplifier and it seems to cope perfectly, I did try more powerful amps in the past with no audible benefits.
Once I was talking to the late Alan Wrigth from VSE and asked him how come
his 18 W amplifier could cope with his inefficient electrostatics and his reply was that it was perfectly adequate as he never played his music
over 90 db???
Obviously the size of the room is a factor.
You are not missing anything. I have both 100db Lowthers and 86db Maggies and love Mahler and Bruckner on both. Actually if I had to choose only one to listen to it would be the Maggies because of the huge soundstage they throw. If you love your system you should never be made to feel that you are missing something. i heard the final movement of the Mahler 3rd in my car recently and it was thrilling
Alan
I think at least part of the answer lied in distinguishing between micro and macro dynamics. An example of the macro is the change from a passage in Mahler where one instrument is playing pppp to the coda of the 8th symphony with two choruses, massive orchestra, off stage brass choir, and organ. For the micro you are talking about the first fraction of a second of a percussive piano tone or the attack of the bow on a violin string that is lot louder than what follows that first fraction of a second. Capturing the nuances of those leading tones requires different attributes for the speaker and amplifier, I think. It is more a matter of quick response than lots of power.
OK, micro-dynamics like: Bream playing Bach; Milstein playing Bach's sonatas and parititas?
If so, I think I am being sold a bill of goods. I think you have to give up a lot of money and, perhaps, a lot of music to get the extremes perfect.
Observe, don't think
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