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Efficient speakers -- What was your journey from A to B to ?

This thread is for people who have tried a successive number of efficient speakers and are willing to relate what they learned on the way.

Here's where I am: Recent experiences with speakers and amps has lead me toward lower watt (not ultra low) amps and more sensitive speakers.

I currently am looking for a second pair of speakers to alternate with my Ascends which would play more nicely with my Quicksilver Mono 60s and my Pass XA 25. (If I found the right speakers, I could be willing to look into SET amps, etc. but that is not my quest, now.)

I am open to design -- horns, open baffle, single driver, etc. My budget is flexible but I won't spend tens of thousands. So, some options are likely not possible.

Here are the speakers I am keeping an eye out for, used, but please add to my list! 

Audio Note
Coherent Audio 
Coincident — planar magnetic tweeters
Daedalus
Fyne
Klipsch
legacy
Living Voice 
Omega
Pure Audio Project
spatial
Tannoy
Volti

Again, I'm especially interested in hearing from folks who have tried more than one of these speakers and can explain what lead them from one brand or model to the next -- and why.

Thanks!
 

128x128hilde45
larryi
3,726 posts
 

Charney Audio and Songer Audio make very good high efficiency speakers.  Of the brands already listed above, I also like the Spatial, Pure Audio Project, Volti, and Fyne speakers.  There are even large psnel speakers with powered woofers that qualify and sound quite good (e.g. Arion Acoustic speakers.  

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,715 posts
 

JBL S4700

Mike

 

shkong78's avatar
shkong78
1,463 posts
 

I recommend you to attend Axpona 2024, if you can spare time.

It is always better to find out yourself.

I will look into several speaekers using field coil units over there.

 

Thomas

 

benanders's avatar
benanders
217 posts
 

Consider speaker design category (e.g. in your mention - K-horns) not just brand. Format of the driver arrangements can be a good predictor of efficiency, and past that it will matter if you like the way a given speaker model sounds.

I don’t think any of the speakers in your list are line arrays, which can also be very efficient. Can be affordable to DIY (though “costly” in terms of learning curves/time); very expensive to buy ready-made.

phildebrandt
4 posts
 

I’m running two amps (Pass Aleph 0s and Audio Note 300B). I have tried 2 models, Zu Soul Supremes which I found fatiguing (shrill, bright, glassy?) after a brief honeymoon period and Audio Note AN-J/LX which I am currently running and which I love. The right mix of detail, warmth, fullness, richness, realism for me and they have scaled surprisingly well with every upgrade I have made to my sources. 
 

I purchased most of my system used, so investment amounts are somewhat misleading, but at this point the speakers are probably only 10% of my total system cost (analog and digital sources). And yet they don’t feel like a bottleneck but rather bring out every upgrade to the sources. 

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