Higher sensitivity - more dynamic sound?

@lonemountain wrote:

"my point about dynamic range was "system dynamics" not one system vs another. The 86dB efficiency speaker on a 250W amp has more total dynamics to cover incoming source material of a wider dynamic content than the 102dB/20w amp system. "

In your example upthread, the 86 dB/250 watt system has a maximum SPL of 110 dB, while the 102 dB/20 watt system has a maximum SPL of 114 dB (actually the math says 115 dB).

How is 110 dB max SPL "more total dynamics" than 114 dB max SPL?

The only way I can see that happening is IF the system noise floor is at least 5 dB lower for the 86 dB/250 watt system, and that’s not something you have included in your example.

(Dynamic range does not start where the amp is producing 1 watt; dynamic range starts at the system noise floor. I mention this because, upon re-reading, one of your posts above seems to make that assumption.)

And here’s another real-world effect which may come into play: If the 20 watt amp is a tube amp (which is likely), and if the 250 watt amp is a solid state amp (also likely), clipping will become audible and objectionable about 3 dB sooner on the 250 watt solid-state amp than on the 20 watt tube amp. In other words, you can push the AVERAGE SPL 3 dB higher on the tube amp than on the solid state amp before clipping becomes audible and objectionable. So instead of the 102 dB/20 watt system having 4 (or more precisely 5) dB more dynamic range from the raw math, real-world that difference may be more like 7 (or 8) dB.

Duke

@deludedaudiophile wrote:

"You are convincing me more and more that active is the way to go long term."

Going active will have no direct impact on driver compression effects, but if you are "rolling your own", going active may make it easier for you to use drivers which have inherently low compression characteristics.

Duke

+1 @avanti1960 

So yes, regardless of amplifier higher sensitivity can mean a more dynamic sound. 

I agree: Higher amplifier power is not a substitute for speaker efficiency, dynamics come from the speaker not the amplifier.

Mike

@audiokinesis , I was more thinking smart people, i.e. like what I see with Kii, as a start, will figure out some way to compensate for these effects in real time. From a simpler aspect, would not an active cross-over system be more immune to the effects of variable voice coil resistance on speaker response including critical crossover points?

@deludedaudiophile wrote:

"I was more thinking smart people, i.e. like what I see with Kii, as a start, will figure out some way to compensate for these effects in real time."

I think you are right, though there is a limit to how much compression "active gain riding" can compensate for. More wattage to compensate = more heat = more compression = even MORE wattage needed to compensate...

"From a simpler aspect, would not an active cross-over system be less [do you mean MORE?] immune to the effects of variable voice coil resistance on speaker response including critical crossover points?"

Yes, but if you start out with drivers that don’t compress significantly anyway, you have already addressed the crossover issue. Also, second-order and higher passive crossovers are much less sensitive to driver DC resistance variations than are first-order passive crossovers.

Duke