High efficiency speakers vs Low, pros and cons

Please take this with a grain of salt, as these are gross generalizations. High efficiency speakers may be more suceptible to noise infiltration, may have greater impedance swings, and may have looser bass. I repeat, these are gross generalizations.

Speakers that are high efficiency ( 95 - 96 dB's and up ) tend to sound punchier aka "more dynamic". This is even truer for "ultra high efficiency" designs ( 100+ dB's ). Having said that, most of them also tend to be bandwidth limited and lack the ability to handle gobs of power / play at sustained high volume levels. They tend to use inexpensive low mass* drivers that break up and distort if pushed hard. As such, the benefits of high efficiency are only good if used at lower power levels. As Unsound said, these are pretty vague generalizations, but ones that i've come to realize via past experiences. There are exceptions to every rule though and more than one way to skin a cat. Sean
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* the more mass you have in a driver, the harder the motor must work to push it, hence a loss in efficiency.

I wouldnt worry too much about it...find a speaker u like...then mate with appropiate power...as much as people want to make it...this is not rocket science....I also agree there are no real advantages to hi-efficiency designs other than low power/tubes can be used...

Phasecorrect is right on!

I have been researching Amps and Speaker for the last few months and I would like to pass along some info here. High efficiency does not necessarily equal high sensitivity. A high sensitivity speaker may still not be efficient and it might require lots of power whereas a low sensitivity speaker might be highly efficient. SET amps like/need high sensivity speakers simply because the low wattage of SET amps cannot be heard otherwise unless they are running through high sensitivity speakers; however, what makes a high sensivity speaker efficient is the impedance swing. An 8ohm speakers that stays true and close to 8ohms as possible is an efficient speaker. Let me clarify. It takes 300 watts at 4ohms to equal the sound of 8ohms at 150 watts. SET amps are not what I would call efficient. This being the case, if the SET is connected to a speaker that swings from 8ohms, down to 4ohms, some of the frequencies will be lost, probably the lower end. This is because the SET will have to push twice as hard to pump current when the loads swings down to 4ohms. Do I have you confused? The SET needs a speakers that is steady; whether it is a steady 4ohm, 8ohm, or 16ohm, or whatever. So, in essence, you could have a speaker with an 86db sensitivity rating, but with a nomimal, steady, 8ohm requirement and therefore be efficient.

This info is why I have chosen to pick out my speakers and then pick out an amp that goes with my chosen speakers. It should work out for me.

Those Von Schweikert DB-100s, what is their impedance swing? Do they have a nomimal rating or do they go between 4 and 8 as most speakers do?

I am still a rookie at this, but I think I am somewhere in the ball park. Experts, how close am I?