Why are high efficiency speakers preferred for low volume listening?

@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. 

You cannot generalize, but consider that highly efficient speakers are likely to involve horns,

the throat/directivity of horns give dispersion control cones do not.

i.e. smooth ’received’ frequency response curve at the listening position (not just 1 meter away), the different relationship of direct primary and reflected sound waves

the perception of any frequency, and clarity of instantaneous peaks is/are enhanced when less reflected sound waves are involved.

dispersion, not volume

I doubt that high efficiency speakers and good low level detail are absolutes. It’s likely more important that things like the amp being a good match to drive the speaker impedance, the system has good resolution, and that phase coherency and overall clarity of the speakers are excellent, along with a suitable room acoustics, etc...all are still significant factors regardless of the speaker efficiency.

Audio is complex, and it’s rarely as simple as isolating one parameter and calling it good. There are always good and bad examples and pros and cons with every principle you can name, and every choice you can make.

I would never buy a speaker with a sensitivity level below 92db.  Please pardon my lack of knowledge and inexperience as a technician, but lower sensitivity speakers, at least in my  experience requires the amp to bring them to life. Oftentimes I have found this to sound lifeless , requiring me to jack up the amp to breathe some energy to the presentation.