All other things are never equal so its a useless question unfortunately.
More efficient speakers are more efficient and that's about all you can say about that.
Most portable electronics that operate out of necessity on low power are very efficient. DO they all sound good?
case closed. |
"The answer has to be yes, if all other speakers were connected to a 5w tube amp."
No doubt high efficiency is the way to go with a 5 watt tube amp. No arguments there.
However, the most efficient high efficiency speaker still may not be the "best", so the premise as stated still does not work. |
Atmasphere,
I think in the minority paradigm that your products operate in, which you wholeheartedly believe in for good reasons, the answer to the ops question has a much better chance of being "yes" than in general. Still not a guaranteed yes though I suspect.
But the rules that apply in one case/paradigm mostly do not apply in the other. Another reason why the only possible answer to the ops question as stated, for whatever it may be worth, is "no". |
Efficiency in of itself is a good thing.
But alone, efficiency means nothing except volume.
I think we can all agree there is more to it than just that? |
So what is the best speaker then?
And what is it's efficiency?
And how big is it?
And how much does it cost?
Sorry,these things matter to me so the ability to fill an arena with sound best does not necessarily make it the best speaker for my application.
How about yours? |
"Speaker manufacturing has evolved. Technology has improved in the form of materials, software and the equipment that drivers are made from. "
I'd say that is a fact.
It's why the rules that determine best solutions these days are not the same as 50 years ago. Its called PROGRESS!
Advantages that mattered 50 years ago may not matter so much today.
Not to say that good efficient speakers don't have advantages, but the advantages that mattered 50 years ago do not so much today.
The bar has been raised considerably over this time and a lot of it due to modern advances in technology that work extremely well together. Like modern speaker designs, Class D amps, digital, etc.
Not to say that vintage technologies like tubes, vinyl, tape etc. don't sound better than ever either.....
There are many ways to skin the cat.
So go ahead and buy the most efficient speakers and a matching flea powered amp as well. It may take a long time to tune to sound exactly the way you want, but when it does I am sure it will sound great.
But there will be plenty of competition out there as well.
That's what makes the world go round... |
I by chance stumbled into an old style general store along the bike trail the other day and was thrilled to find that the owner specialized in refurbished Victrolas and had an assortment to listen to and purchase.
I asked to hear a couple of the best sounding ones.
What I heard was quite lovely. Various smaller boxes with a crank motor filled that sizable venue with some lovely music from that era that, though technically limited and flawed, had a mechanical tonality and presence all its own.
I want to own a working Victrola some day. Not likely to dump my power guzzling OHMs and Class D amps to drive them though... |
Anybody know what the typical efficiency rating of a Victrola is?
It uses no electricity yet can fill a quite large room with quite lovely sound. Gotta be extremely efficient! This may be the ticket!
Not much bass or high end though in those old 78's! |
Bottom line, is the sound has to reach certain SPL levels to meet the listener's need.
I suppose one way to look at it is that with very efficient speakers, the amplifier is asked to do less to achieve that goal. That opens up a whole different ballgame if you are an amplifier manufacturer in that the burden is lifted to some extent. So you might lower cost on the amp or focus on other quality aspects of the amp I suppose as desired, depending on your target market's needs.
Now, if the speakers are less efficient, there is more of the basic function of an amplifier to do to achieve the goal, ie the amp must amplify more. That changes the game accordingly as well, however my point is that I feel comfortable that modern and more mainstream innovations in amplifier technology, with all the economic advantages that go along with being more mainstream, are up to the task of retaining high quality and value in this game on par with the best out there.
I might not have felt quite the same way about this a few years ago before testing the waters with modern, high efficiency Class D amps that target the audiophile market, but my call at this point is that the efficiencies in modern amp design can offset whatever historical efficiencies may have existed for speaker designers.
I think amplification can be done well in many ways, either mechanically using horns or electronically using modern SS or even tube amps, chose your preference.
Not to say all makers of speakers or amps actually do it really well though. Some do it really well. Many do it pretty well. The rest do not survive or else find a different and less fussy target market.
That is a big difference! |
I've read that the human ear does not have flat response but rather is most sensitive in certain range of the audio spectrum associated with brightness.
Atmasphere, is this what you are referring to when you talk about hearing rules?
If so, seems to me that this is then a natural artifact of human hearing. It makes sense to take that into account when designing audio gear it would seem to me, but I would think there are many ways to adjust to that. It either sounds good or not. There is not a single technical approach that can accomplish this it seems to me. A flat frequency response would still seem to be desirable in order to allow our ears to hear the way they are designed without a bias introduced in the signal. Chose your distortion. It is always there to some extent. |
"I don't understand how a 4" driver, even if has high efficiency due to horn loading, can move enough air to have much dynamics."
Its all relative and depend on room size but basically teh answer is it can't compete in an apples/apples test.
Unsound, even if you consider them deficient, what are the best sounding horns you have heard?
The best I have heard are custom GoTo horns. I did not get to hear them over an extended period of time, but what I heard was quite good and with my eyes closed I do not think I could have guessed they were horns other than the fact that the dynamics were superlative. |
Yes the biggest problem I have with horns is the ones that sound really good to me are big and expensive at which point they tend to lose their benefit overall for me.
If I could fit the better ones I have heard and afford them as well, they would be a viable option that I would strongly consider.
I've also considered Forte's in that they are not overly expensive, get good accolades, and actually might fit into my house somewhere someday. But I do not expect them to become my #1 go to speaker. |
BTW, Unsound, if you have only heard the newer OHM Walshes on similar modest systems, you probably have not heard them at their best and I could more easily understand your not being wowed with those either. |
