We should reject hard-to-drive speakers more often

I always wonder that too. I think the original reasons were that the loudspeakers were cheaper and so were the higher powered solid-state amplifiers. But that’s not really true anymore.

Also for cone speakers (generally) just shrink the voice coil and widen the gap and “bingo” you’ve got a much flatter frequency response (and usually less expensive manufacturing cost)

I have tried multiples of pairs of rather low sensitivity loudspeakers.

Dozens of them…not 100’s though (likely BS on anyone having tried 1000’s of pairs lol)

They always leave me dry, but many of friends and family seem to enjoy them so again it’s all subjective.

I’ve got  both types of systems now (one in the basement another in outer building)

For the low sensitivity system I’ll get compliments on how “smooth” or “nice” they sound.
To me I’ve come to take these adjectives as code words for “flat”, un-exciting or “not dynamic”

But it’s the never ending story, and taste can’t be argued.

I just returned a pair of zu audio dirty weekend speakers. Very sensitive speakers.  Tried a pair used Bowers and Wilkins 705s. The original version. Much less sensitive. To my ears, more natural and clear. I don't think sensitivity is an issue at all. Just whether I like the sound.

@brev I get that this was your experience which I don't argue. But the sensitivity of the speaker does matter. FWIW, if you have the standmount version of the 702, its a pretty easy speaker to drive despite being a little less sensitive.

If this were the case about Loudspeakers not the most efficient like  Truly Great speakers like the MBL 111. Omni directional speakers would be ignored , or the Excellent Apogee ribbon speakers from our great audio past , or Maggi Magnetic 🧲 planer speakers .if you have the extra watts  they like and a bit of extra room , they provide very life like reproduction 

of music ,their longevity in Audio is a testament to their popularity with other Audiophiles, myself also  owns Dynaudio speakers That are 86 db efficient ,they sound very good but they too like a few watts to. Bring  them front and center 

we are talking literally a few extra watts to bring out all the low level details , to me a small sacrifice .why don’t Erik state what exactly his Audio system is made up of 

so maybe he can point out what we maybe missing  !!

@erik_squires I encourage you to read about Hoffman's Iron Law. Can't have your cake and eat it too. ;-) 

https://www.salksound.com/blogtopic.php?id=3