How important is the efficiency of a speaker to you?

Dear @lonemountain  " most bad decisions in audio are made based on bad info or lack of info.  There is a lot of misleading info posted on forums "

yes, but in the forums are many very good information ( not bad information ) where we can learn. I learned in this thread with several of the posts of gentlemans that have higher knowledge level in the specific regards that me and one of them is @phusis  and other like them.

Btw, I remember listened 4-5 times in the past the original Wilson Watt and this is a fantastic true monitor not high efficiency as a horn but measured 91db and this Watt has a problem for any amplifier ( tubes forbidden with ) at 1khz its impedance surve measures 1ohm and near 2khz 0.32 ohm . IN those times the preffered amps for it were Krell and Spectral.

As a fact David Wilson made it all his Wilson Audio LP Recordings using in the studio the Watts and at Wilson place the WAMMs. I own all those fantastic recordings that are impressive: microphones by Sennheiser ( recordings in the late 80's ), Recorder by John Curl, cables by Bruce Brisson. We have to remember that DW before started in the speaker design was a recording engineer for several years.

R.

Dear  @daveyf  : I think that in many ways the speaker impedance curve and phase is way more important than efficiency.

Almost no speaker manufacturer ( if not all of them. ) gives to the owners that speaker measured characterisatics and normally only gives the speaker " nominal " impedance.

With out those 2 characteristics how any speaker owner could mate in a " decent " way the amp for his speakers audio system?

The Watt had pretty decent efficiency at 91 db but those very low impedances happens  in a very usual frequency range where MUSIC comes.

That's why several audio system owners are not satisfied with the speaker or amp or boths.

R.

@rauliruegas

Very good point and great example that there is more to know about a speaker than a 1w/1m spec. Could a 86dB 1w/1m speaker with a very flat impenace curve  outperform a 91db 1w/1m speaker with a wildy changing impedance curve? Yes.

Brad

@rauliruegas I think we need to be more clear as to what we are discussing when it comes to lower sensitivity. There is little question that a lot of great speakers are in the less efficient camp, meaning that they are not in the 100db/w mode, but closer to 85db/w etc., These very same speakers may drop down into the 3-4 ohm load in the bass, which might present a more challenging load to some amp designs, but like pointed out, with a sufficiently beefy power supply, will still work fine. These are not really the speakers that I am talking about here..  

@daveyf This makes more sense. Your original post seemed to suggest your dissatisfaction with speakers not efficient enough for “your” tube amp vs speakers that are inefficient way below the average speaker.

I’ve demoed many good/great speakers at brick n mortar and audio shows, but very few subjectively “resonated” with me. That’s why I thought it a good thing that the OP found such a speaker.  Unfortunately, the speaker requires significant power. Maybe a tube pre + SS amp might work out economically and sonically.  Good luck with your search.

Btw, I remember listened 4-5 times in the past the original Wilson Watt and this is a fantastic true monitor not high efficiency as a horn but measured 91db and this Watt has a problem for any amplifier ( tubes forbidden with ) at 1khz its impedance surve measures 1ohm and near 2khz 0.32 ohm . IN those times the preffered amps for it were Krell and Spectral.

This is mostly incorrect.

At the time this speaker was made, the national sales manager of Wilson was using Atma-Sphere OTLs in his home system. The Watt was an easy load for any tube amp (David designed his speakers using ARC amps and often showed with them; my first exposure to Wilson was at the ARC factory).

That 1 (or 2) Ohm load was at about 2KHz where there wasn't a lot of energy. The tweeter had a resonance problem and so there was a 2KHz trap that presented the amp with a low impedance, thus knocking out the resonance pretty well. This worked great with tube amps! Not so much solid state, as solid state amps would often make more power into a lower impedance rather than less.