Which speakers are higher efficiency?

One of the great ironies/mysteries of life is that one usually needs more power to get full-range sound in a small room than in a big room ("but it's a bigger room so needs a bigger amp!" he said). To get full-range efficient speakers, one is usually dealing with a large box which may require more distance. Small bookshelf speakers require more power to drive well. Such, to the everlasting chagrin of horn-loving studio apartment dwellers, is life. As Johnk mentioned, the Model 15 does a decent job (though noone would ever accuse it of being a 'big-boned' bookshelf speaker), and depending on your tolerance for tall speakers, something like a Cain & Cain Abby might also work - again... I recommend a dig through the archives.

Richard,

Off my experience with the 15ish watt Cary monos and the deCapos, I'd tend to disagree with the general theme here.

If you don't listen loud and you're in a small room and your program material contains little deep bass (and from your last post, all of that sounds true), I'd suspect that you'll be fine with your amp and the 3a speaker. OTOH, if your jazz collection is long on Jimmy Smith, you might want to reconsider.

This is just MHO, and it's based on a different - but related - hardware combo, but I doubt you're NEED more grunt for the 3a speakers. It probably wouldn't hurt to have it, though.

Marty

MSRP on the Reference 3A Grand Veena is $8k, and on the Focal it's $11k. So if you say $4k - $6k I assume you're looking for a used pair.

While I agree that in a smaller room, with the right sorts of music, 24W might be enough for those speakers (but see note below), there are others you could consider that are higher efficiency and might give you more options in music. A few easy examples would be the Zu Audio Druid (101dB, 12-ohm impedance, $3500 MSRP) and the Emerald Physics CS3 (95dB, 8 ohms nominal, MSRP $3k).

There's more to the equation than just RMS watts and sensitivity. In particular, both the Reference and the Focal drop to around 4-ohm impedances somewhere in their curves, and this means your amp has to supply the corresponding current (or live with the dynamic limitation). This is where solid-state is usually better than tubes.

IMO the Druid is a much nicer match to your amp than the speakers mentioned, as its higher sensitity and higher impedance will make much smaller demands on the amp. That is not to say that those speakers can't work, just that they don't seem to be particularly well-mated.

Lou