Higher sensitivity - more dynamic sound?

@deludedaudiophile wrote:

"I was more thinking smart people, i.e. like what I see with Kii, as a start, will figure out some way to compensate for these effects in real time."

I think you are right, though there is a limit to how much compression "active gain riding" can compensate for. More wattage to compensate = more heat = more compression = even MORE wattage needed to compensate...

"From a simpler aspect, would not an active cross-over system be less [do you mean MORE?] immune to the effects of variable voice coil resistance on speaker response including critical crossover points?"

Yes, but if you start out with drivers that don’t compress significantly anyway, you have already addressed the crossover issue. Also, second-order and higher passive crossovers are much less sensitive to driver DC resistance variations than are first-order passive crossovers.

Duke

So now you are poking holes in those that proselytize first order cross-overs for better time alignment :-)   In many ways speakers are much more interesting that the other parts of an audio system, but so much less time seems to be spent discussing them beyond the cursory.

Aesthetically or for practical reasons, efficient speakers, which I assume are normally large, may not be practical.

I did mean more immune. Thank you for the correction.

@deludedaudiophile, to quote my favorite line from The Princess Bride, with poetic license invoked:

"Speaker design is tradeoffs, Highness. Anyone who says differently is in marketing."

Duke

@audiokinesis How is 110 dB max SPL "more total dynamics" than 114 dB max SPL?

The only way I can see that happening is IF the system noise floor is at least 5 dB lower for the 86 dB/250 watt system, and that’s not something you have included in your example.

(Dynamic range does not start where the amp is producing 1 watt; dynamic range starts at the system noise floor. I mention this because, upon re-reading, one of your posts above seems to make that assumption.)

I appreciate this informative discussion. @audiokinesis  your detailed explanation for the inherent advantages of a higher efficiency/sensitivity speaker I find more compelling and logical compared with the counter position for the lower efficiency speaker expressed thus far in this thread.

What you have described/explained does seem to correlate to the actual listening experiences of what others here have reported.

Charles

Frankly, any reasonably well designed and mated combination of speaker and amp can be sufficient.

Consider that most rock /pop recordings have a whopping dynamic range of maybe 10db. Classical will have the widest range, perhaps 30 db.