Why are high efficiency speakers preferred for low volume listening?

I’m not the best one to address this but what is your budget? I just start here because the qualities you listed could lead to a $3000 system or much higher. You get what you pay for generally speaking.

In general high efficency speakers if done right can portray the source, whatever that means, in a more natural light, driven by a wide array of textures, spaciousness, power, etc.

You can get it with low efficiency but IMO it will cost more. The room might really the amplifier that determines your higher end.

The same can be said for lower efficiency. More power, more slam!

Impedance curve is simple- All drivers get similar power, or some require much more than others. That difference is the major source of the curve.

You really have get out and listen for yourself. Travel!

Good luck brother!

Easy to drive speakers avoid low impedance and phase shifts at all frequencies and require an amp work less hard in general be it at low or higher volumes. So that is advantageous. They will also tend to sound more similar with various amps.

Whereas high efficiency speakers simply produce higher spl overall per watt. The advantage there is mainly going louder with a less beefy amp. Beyond that any thing else is possible including a frequency response that sounds better at low volumes…or not  

better able to handle dynamic swings even at low levels

@immatthewj Wrote:

Why are high efficiency speakers preferred for low volume listening?

I think it's because of milliwatts that a lot of amps produce higher distortion when operating at the milliwatt level. From Quicksilver website:  ''The Horn Mono Amplifier is designed specifically for use with very efficient loudspeakers.  It has extremely low noise and distortion as well as having 18db less gain than Quicksilver’s standard amplifiers.  This avoids the noise and gain problems that normally appear when using horn speakers.  The amplifier is designed to sound good at the extremely low levels (milliwatts) that horn loudspeakers require.  Many amplifiers actually have higher distortions at these low levels.'' See old post below:

ditusa

1,791 posts

09-23-2021 at 10:52pm 

@celestial__sound 
''because 90% of the time I listen at ~60dBs SPL.''

At 60dB SPL your speakers are not getting 1 watt or 2 watts or 10 watts, in fact they are not even getting 1/2 watt. At 60dB SPL your speakers are getting milliwatts from the amp. In my experience driving low efficiency speakers with milliwatts they will sound anemic at low volume; high efficiency speakers can play well with milliwatts and not sound anemic at low volume. Also amplifiers, tube amplifiers for sure, produce more distortion in lower impedances then higher impedances. That's why I said higher efficiency and higher impedance speakers make more sense then a more powerful amp.
Hope that helps...

Mike

I am curious about this myself. I have KEF Reference One’s, which are not efficient, and years ago I had Klipsch Heresy’s, which are very efficient. Is it that high efficiency speakers are more “lively”, or was that just the horns on the Klipsch doing that? If I were to upgrade my speakers, I would probably look for something a bit more lively.