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Loudspeaker sensitivity and dynamics: are the two inexorably linked?

Have been listening to quite a few speakers lately, and increasingly I've noticed that more sensitive speakers tend to have better microdyanmics - the sense that the sound is more "alive" or more like the real thing.

The speakers involved include my own Magico A5's, Joseph Audio Pulsar 2's, and  Wilson Watt/Puppy 7's, as well as others including the Magico M3, Wilson Alexia V, various Sonus Faber's, Magnepan's,  Borressen's, and Rockport models (Cygnus and Avior II).

A recent visit to High Water Sound in NYC topped the cake though: proprietor and vinyl guru Jeff Catalano showed off a pair of Cessaro horns (Opus One) that literally blew our minds (with a few listening buddies).  The Cessaro's sensitivity is rated at 97 db, highest among the aforementioned models.  That system was very close to live performance - and leads to the topic.

I'm not referring to maximum loudness or volume, rather that the music sounds less reproduced and more that the instrumentation and vocals are more real sounding through higher sensitivity speakers.

Is this a real phenomenon?  Or is it more the particular gear I've experienced?

Thoughts?

bobbydd
ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,867 posts
 

@bobbydd Wrote:

Loudspeaker sensitivity and dynamics: are the two inexorably linked?

I think George Augspurger article below makes sense:

Mike

https://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/reference/technical/efficiency.htm

phusis's avatar
phusis
1,186 posts
 

@ditusa —

+1

deep_333
1,240 posts
 

I've heard plenty of high efficiency speakers: Klipsch Forte, Heresy IV, La Scalla, etc., JBL L82, Zu, and others, and all the ones I've heard,  trade off their efficiency for (IMO) less than optimum timbral accuracy, lack of a focused and layered soundstage, greater frequency response aberrations. And most of them, to me, seem to create a veneer of sounding like a PA system, that overlays everything. 

@simonmoon , this has to be the post of the month!

@bobbydd 

Not 'inexorably linked' at all....Since high fidelity gobs of power is quite affordable these days, it is largely silly to chase high sensitivity speakers any more.

My Schweikerts rated at  88db are explosively dynamic and will startle the living daylights out of you.

johnnycamp5's avatar
johnnycamp5
124 posts
 

High sensitivity folks (not efficiency)

Ive had lots of all the above (and still have many of both). One mans "dynamic range" is another mans "loud" or "in your face" so its a hard subject to discuss.

IME yes, high sensitivity = more "dynamic range"

phusis's avatar
phusis
1,186 posts
 

@deep_333 wrote:

... Since high fidelity gobs of power is quite affordable these days, it is largely silly to chase high sensitivity speakers any more.

If only it was that simple. 

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