Speaker sensitivity vs SQ

@tomic601 asked:  

"are you 3D printing the waveguide?"  

No. I looked into it and concluded that was impractical. The piece is 22" in diameter.

Duke

Aside from your personal likes dislikes in speakers the main advantage of Highly efficient speakers (> 95 dB  with 1 watt at 1 meter) is the greater dynamics that can be achieved.  Doubling the power of your amplifier will only give you a 3Db gain in SPL.  Lets take a look at the power requirements for a couple of speakers,  Setting the max SPL at 116 Db. the B&W 603 S2 is rated at 88.5 DB @ 1 watt input.  To produce 116 Db you will need a 1Kw amp.  My old Altec A7-500's are rated at 103 Db at 1 watt and can Produce 116 dB with a little over 16 watts.  To my ear this is why some speakers sound muted/sluggish on rim shots and other sounds that require fast response.
disclaimer the math is approximant but close. My personal system uses a set of speakers that are rated at 84dB at 1 watt and my power amp is rated at 1Kw RMS and tests to 1.1 Kw/channel both channels operating..   I can only say that switching from a MC2100 to the larger amp was like cleaning a dirty windshild and bass is tight as a drum pun intended.

I have yet to hear the OB speakers Danny Richie offers in his various GR Research kits, but they are pretty darn sensitive (mid-to-high 90's) and are reportedly very transparent, natural at timbre reproduction, and dynamic as well. As soon as social interaction is again possible, I plan on inviting myself over to the Portland home of the Audiogoner who owns the NX-Otica (I think), which he pairs with the Rythmik/GRR OB/Dipole Sub, which I too built.

lalitk,

I've heard the Canterbury and other coaxial Tannoy speakers and liked what I heard.  I just did not consider them in the discussion because they I did not consider them to be a single, full-range driver.  But, they are certainly great sounding examples of fairly highly efficient speakers that are easy to drive and can be run with low-powered amps.  I also agree they are quite nice to look at too.

I have a friend who is now in the process of building a system using the coaxial Altec 604 drivers from Great Plains Audio.  At one point, he considered an Onken cabinet, but, the available designs for this driver specify a 360 liter cabinet (one and half times the size of the Canterbury's Onken cabinet) and this was too large to be practical.  Too bad, I like the sound of Onken bass reflex speakers.

Thank you nwres, bache, atmasphere for responding to my question.

Which was:  If there are such big advantages in high sensitivity speakers why do so many manufacturers build low sensitivity speakers?

Thank you jetter for your kind words.

To miller: I don't want you replying to my posts if you will not answer the question.  It helps if you can read and your mind is not closed.

John DeVore's informative and well presented video does not bear on my question at all.

To everyone else: I am not interested in what speakers you like.  Nor in how to build a high sensitivity speaker - I just want to know why most aren't doing it.  There must be reasons and they are probably technical, or related to cost vs SQ.  We are not there yet.