Speaker's efficiency, sensitivity and impedance

Chris, my ribbing was meant to be good naturedly humorous, but I think my underlying point was serious. You've spent a lot of energy trying to reduce a rather complex issue to a single parameter. Impedance is only meaningful when it is considered in combination with all the other factors.

Simply put, there is no one "audiophile" impedance that people should shoot for. It is only one of many factors to be juggled depending on the overall design goals for the speaker in question.

Chris, thanks - hope that was somewhat helpful.

Gregm, you are of course correct - the proper expression of efficiency would be a percentage, and then we could probably do apples-to-apples comparisons! I've only seen percentages given in prosound, though. Note that I used the wording "as commonly used in consumer audio" so that I could go back and weasel my way out if necessary, and I'm invoking that weasel clause now.

Duke

So, what would be easier to drive?
A speaker with 90DB and 4 ohms or a speaker with 88DB and 8 ohms?

YES- semantic gymnastics seems the most popular sport in the audio industry, and these forums. You can see by the definition for "sensitivity/efficiency" given by a company some of you MAY be familiar with(after all the years they've been manufacturing for the sound industry), that even JBL considers the two terms synonymous- second question on this site: (http://www.jbl.com/home/product_support/JBL_contactus.aspx). The difference between the two terms lies in the input being measured in volts for sensitivity, and watts for efficiency(as mentioned), and that depends on the semantic application that the manufacturer or rater chooses to observe. Another professional view: (http://www.projectsunlimited.com/audioProducts/MovieClips/TechNotes/Glossary.asp?articalID=29) This site offers a caveat regarding the use of 2.83v as a reference, and how the result's affected by a system's impedance: (http://www.transcendentsound.com/amp_input_sensitivity_and_gain.htm) So much obfuscation found in here!