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Speaker sensitivity vs SQ

My first thread at AG.

Millercarbon continues to bleat on about the benefits of high sensitivity speakers in not requiring big amplifier watts.
After all, it's true big amplifiers cost big money.  If there were no other factors, he would of course be quite right.

So there must be other factors.  Why don't all speaker manufacturers build exclusively high sensitivity speakers?
In a simple world it ought to be a no-brainer for them to maximise their sales revenue by appealing to a wider market.

But many don't.  And in their specs most are prepared to over-estimate the sensitivity of their speakers, by up to 3-4dB in many cases, in order to encourage purchasers.  Why do they do it?

There must be a problem.  The one that comes to mind is sound quality.  It may be that high sensitivity speakers have inherently poorer sound quality than low sensitivity speakers.  It may be they are more difficult to engineer for high SQ.  There may be aspects of SQ they don't do well.

So what is it please?

128x128clearthinker
berner99
216 posts
 
There are categories of speakers which sound different from each other:

A. horns
B. omnis, open baffles
C. electrostatics 
   Maggie’s (perhaps need own category)
D. “regular” box speakers (perhaps wide dispersion go under B)

How many people in 2020 are going to choose anything other than their preferred category no matter what sensitivity?
petg60
1,486 posts
 
Lower sensitivity can produce more bass with a smaller enclosure but need power.
Higher ones for same amount of bass require larger cabinets but less power.
Higher efficiency could have better dynamic contrasts and a greater sense of liveiness, and offer better sound at low levels, but this is general.
Depends on matching on your musical tastes. In truth you can have great designs from both worlds.
G

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
Chasing flavors of distortion aka cone breakup or the focused constructive and destructive interference of a horn does not move accurate reproduction forward. Nothing wrong with picking baskin Robbins flavor #426 if that is your thing...

pistonic motion cuts 3db off sensitivity, ain’t no free lunch
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
Also the box flopping around also adds to output, just not in time with the note played ....
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
So building a dead box.... cuts output..,,

shall we go on ?

the big baffle can be thought of as a 2D horn ....


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