@immatthewj, The importance of speaker efficiency: The article below is from 1962 and is as relevant today as it was then. Another advantage, with higher efficiency speakers, is greater head room with a given amount of amplifier power. In my opinion, a high powered amplifier that can drive lower impedances will never be a proxy for a speaker's lack of true efficiency see here.
Mike
@atmasphere Wrote:
For that reason higher efficiency is good whether played at a lower volume or not since it can take advantage of lower powered and (hopefully) more musical amps.
All amplifiers make more distortion into lower impedances. This distortion is audible- don't fool yourself.
Its that first Watt of most amps that is usually the most important so if your amp has a good first Watt, you can see that a speaker of higher efficiency will be more able to take advantage of that.
I agree!