How important is the efficiency of a speaker to you?

Flea watt amps are anything but dumb. Low watt amps and high efficiency speakers are about transient speed.

Huh?? @danager , what transient speed did you obtain with a flea watt amp paired with the high efficiency speaker that a meatheaded amp couldn’t do (with the same speaker)? Please elaborate. I have nothing against high efficiency speakers. I do have a problem with this flea watt miracle (supposedly). Essentially, they tend to gimp such speakers.

That’s why flea amps with high efficiency speakers have such a strong following among true audiophiles

@antigrunge2 ....Again, no problem with high efficiency speakers. But, ugh, what the hell benefit did you get by pairing it with a flea watt amp?? A "true audiophile" like you knows of some mystery that an "untrue audiophile" like me doesn’t get perhaps?

.

@deep_333 

My comment relates to the high wattage, complex crossover+DSP school of engineering. I have yet to hear a system built that way that offers true timbre and time allignment of its various components. Flea watt amps are not a must but many valve enthusiasts swear by 2A3s.

@deep_333 

Here is a white paper written by Steve Deckert that explains it much better than I ever could.

https://www.decware.com/paper43.htm

Flea watt amplifiers are class A with minimal circuitry and no negative feedback as opposed to a high powered amplifier that relies on a much more complex circuitry and many more components.  As components are added there is a gain in power but it comes at a cost.  Top of line amplification can minimize those loses with higher quality components and advanced designs but they then become very very expensive and totally unnecessary with a well designed high efficiency speaker.

I'm running corner horns with two watts and can reach 85 to 87db in in a very large space without a sound deficit that's apparent to me.  I'm not able (or want) to play at 110db but I still have bass I can feel in my chest and a detailed sound stage that's simply glorious.

@ortodox 

02-29-2024 at 11:56am 

I went from 87 db speakers to 94 db speakers. Much better sound at low volume and less power needed.

****

I had a similar experience with going from 85 dB sensitivity (84-86 depending on whose numbers one is to believe) Ohm-Walsh 4 speakers to 92-94 dB Klipsch Heresy IV. 

I WAS using an updated (by me) ADCOM GFA-545-II to drive the Ohms (GREAT for RAMMSTEIN!), got into a class AB 6CA7 tube amp - Willsenton R8, totally modified/updated by me - then got the Klipsch speakers and a Tektron TK2 2A3/50I-S amp running 300b tubes.

Just before selling the Ohms, I hooked them up to the class A Tektron and they BARELY sounded like anything but hollow, without presence, a very narrow soundstage, vague, muddy.

I connected the ADCOM amp for the buyer and he was sold on them within seconds of hearing “In Your Eyes.”

I’m using 2A3 tubes now and enjoying 50-60’s Jazz more than ever.

Sensitivity, power driving the right speakers, makes a YUGE difference.

addendum:

Funny, I can remember a conversation I had with the father of a girl I was dating back around 1974 who said “you only need about 2 watts to listen to music” when the stereo we were playing was something like 50 WPC and after 50 years, I’ve come full-circle to pretty much the same conclusion.

YMMV. 

@danager 

What price  level and brands would you say have overcome the obstacles to achieve top level performance?