Is the most efficient speaker the best speaker?

Efficiency in of itself is a good thing.

But alone, efficiency means nothing except volume.

I think we can all agree there is more to it than just that?

Atmsphere, of course that is only your opinion, many if not most, have come to the opposite conclusion.

Sorry, Unsound. What I have stated is simple fact; its not a matter of debate nor can I do anything to change it. Facts are like that. If you seriously think that what I stated my opinion then I advise you to study the theory and history of audio.

Now it is true that the majority of the audio industry has chosen to use the Voltage Paradigm. If you look at history you will see why- high efficiency speakers are more expensive to build. Just follow the money.

Atmosphere: "the simple fact is that any speaker that has high efficiency conforms to the Power Paradigm unless the designer went through extraordinary steps to prevent that"

This is fact:
My Current MTM's had a hugh power response hump about an octave above the crossover frequency to deal with. Power Paradigms are not as critical in all designs, but they always exist.... Always.

It seems the popularity and proliferation of low efficiency speakers can be traced to the advent of transistor amplifiers. Speaker builders were`nt compelled to take the time/skill required to design high quality high efficient speakers, instead you could just continue to make ever more powerful SS amps to compensate. The SS approach was muh cheaper than relying on tubes. Need 200,400 or 600 watts to drive a particular speaker? No problem, how about 1000 or 2000 watts(as with class D amps currently). The motivation in this direction was`nt purely in the direction for better sound or realistic reproduction of music as the objective.

Charles1dad:
"It seems the popularity and proliferation of low efficiency speakers can be traced to the advent of transistor amplifiers"

I didn't know the tracing of low efficiency speakers to be linked to solid state amplifiers. Could you please educate me on the evolution or tracing of such?

I am aware of basic speaker design and much of its evolution, I have never heard speaker design evolution linked specifically to solid state or tubed amps. I'm very interested to hear this. Thanks for your help.