Efficient speakers -- What was your journey from A to B to ?


This thread is for people who have tried a successive number of efficient speakers and are willing to relate what they learned on the way.

Here's where I am: Recent experiences with speakers and amps has lead me toward lower watt (not ultra low) amps and more sensitive speakers.

I currently am looking for a second pair of speakers to alternate with my Ascends which would play more nicely with my Quicksilver Mono 60s and my Pass XA 25. (If I found the right speakers, I could be willing to look into SET amps, etc. but that is not my quest, now.)

I am open to design -- horns, open baffle, single driver, etc. My budget is flexible but I won't spend tens of thousands. So, some options are likely not possible.

Here are the speakers I am keeping an eye out for, used, but please add to my list! 

Audio Note
Coherent Audio 
Coincident — planar magnetic tweeters
Daedalus
Fyne
Klipsch
legacy
Living Voice 
Omega
Pure Audio Project
spatial
Tannoy
Volti

Again, I'm especially interested in hearing from folks who have tried more than one of these speakers and can explain what lead them from one brand or model to the next -- and why.

Thanks!
 

128x128hilde45
Post removed 

I recommend you to attend Axpona 2024, if you can spare time.

It is always better to find out yourself.

I will look into several speaekers using field coil units over there.

 

Thomas

 

Consider speaker design category (e.g. in your mention - K-horns) not just brand. Format of the driver arrangements can be a good predictor of efficiency, and past that it will matter if you like the way a given speaker model sounds.

I don’t think any of the speakers in your list are line arrays, which can also be very efficient. Can be affordable to DIY (though “costly” in terms of learning curves/time); very expensive to buy ready-made.

I’m running two amps (Pass Aleph 0s and Audio Note 300B). I have tried 2 models, Zu Soul Supremes which I found fatiguing (shrill, bright, glassy?) after a brief honeymoon period and Audio Note AN-J/LX which I am currently running and which I love. The right mix of detail, warmth, fullness, richness, realism for me and they have scaled surprisingly well with every upgrade I have made to my sources. 
 

I purchased most of my system used, so investment amounts are somewhat misleading, but at this point the speakers are probably only 10% of my total system cost (analog and digital sources). And yet they don’t feel like a bottleneck but rather bring out every upgrade to the sources. 

@benanders wrote:

Consider speaker design category (e.g. in your mention - K-horns) not just brand. Format of the driver arrangements can be a good predictor of efficiency, and past that it will matter if you like the way a given speaker model sounds.

+1

@hilde45 --

My "journey" in the high efficiency element of speakers has had the focus of maintaining good power response ("energy coherency"/dispersion pattern matching) at the crossover region from horn- or waveguide hybrid solutions, as well as the advantages offered from all-horn speakers. Main goal through it all, apart from other traits of high efficiency: better coherency via a more range uniform speaker-room interaction, and ultimately also less interference from the acoustic environment.

The important thing with all-horns and the very high efficiency they offer is trying to achieve proper size of the horns to actually have them act like horns in the entire frequency region they cover. This is not trivial for a variety of reasons, and when achieved will give the better outset to work from with this design choice. If size is an issue, and it usually is, a horn- or waveguide hybrid solution (i.e.: in conjunction with a direct radiating element) can be the preferred route, but here as well it is important to have proper dispersion pattern match at the crossover(s) for aided coherency, and depending on the overall physical stature of the speakers (and goals wrt. limiting and controlling overall dispersive nature) this can lead to quite large speakers.

Initially my going towards the high efficiency segment of speakers came from wanting to avoid dome tweeters to achieve better power response and overall coherency. Waveguide-fitted Amphion speakers were tried out, then S.P. Technology speakers (also waveguide), hORNS (w/OSWG waveguide), and ultimately very high efficiency all-horn speakers from Simon Mears to what I have now: a combination of large format mids/tweeter horns with large direct radiating woofer/mids and tapped horn-loaded subs. My ultimate goal would be ending up with a properly sized all-horn solution eventually.

As for speaker recommendation, this is more difficult to assess in relation to your taste and speaker history, not that your purchase history here should necessarily be any indication for what’s to come onwards. However I’m thinking used JBL K2 S9800(SE), which are very good speakers, or used JBL M2’s actively configured. For all-horns you could try out used Klipsch K-horns, which can be retrofitted with better mids and tweeter horn + drivers and crossover from Greg Roberts of Volti Audio. This would also make the use of lower powered amps more obvious with the K-horns’ very high eff. The JBL’s ideally should be fed with more power, I find, but here you could try out bi-amping and different amp combinations. The latest iteration Klipsch Cornwall speakers are popular. Oh, well - the list is long..