Speaker sensitivity vs SQ

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.

OP,

It is about the cost of building/selling/ever decreasing market for large speakers as many have said.

I wouldn’t want to pay for the speakers I luckily inherited, and the typically large house with large listening space they would sound best in.

likewise, I wouldn’t want the challenge of finding small speakers that sound so good I have to have them, nor then have to pay for the additional power they would need.

audiokinesis

8 CF!

You made me drag out my drawings for the enclosures I designed, for the drivers I inherited, with the help of Electro-Voice Engineers and my AV Consultant for my current speakers.

Deducting elements within the enclosure, I ended up with net internal volume 6.01 CF

And, responding to my youthful excess, we designed a rear tuned port to squeak out a bit more from the 37 lb 15" woofers. I left the ports open in prior location, ’hear/feel those canons! I closed them when I moved here. Bass is tighter, bass imaging very good, I frequently advise front facing subs located near the mains to achieve imaging of bass. I advise against ports, if any front firing.

They shouldn’t fit here. They are big, this house is a small split level. I got very lucky here, they fit, look, sound great. Whenever we go to other people’s houses, or look inside a house when they are for sale, I always look for where they would go. I see very few houses with a good space for them, even the big Victorian Monsters in the six historic districts of my town.

They are in the background of my ’cleaning LP’s photo’ in my listing on eBay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133612076659

They are extremely efficient, I could shake the walls with 5 watts probably, I sometimes think about trying my friends 8 wpc amps, but they were driven by 30 wpc mono blocks originally, the amps still work, I have stayed in the 30-35, now 45 wpc size, not too big, not too heavy, not too much heat range. That is the max size tube amp I would want to pay for, or less.

Thanks for inspiring me to look at those old drawings, jogs some great memories.