This is the best description of sensitivity in speaker design that I have heard someone give to all of us "non engineer eeducated" listeners. Thank you for this video.
@Bumble Bee Well it doesnt take much for her to get loud thats for sure ^_^ I estimate she is around 120db and that is with a very peaky frequency response ! ... maybe i should work with the room acoustics and see if i can tame her a little !
Go google Hoffman's Iron Law, people. High sensitivity = big boxes and/or weak bass extension. If you want bass extension, then you need to lower the sensitivity and/or make the box bigger. If you want a small box, then expect low sensitivity and/or shallow bass.
But it would have been nice to hear the answer to the question.....why are they not all high efficiency? He did a good job explaining how it’s measured......
As Paul has stated in the past, engineering a product is a series of compromises. Since as noted in the video, a loudspeaker's sensitivity is based on the sensitivity of the least sensitive driver, it's possible that the designer wanted to use a particular woofer or type of woofer, or wanted a particular type of enclosure (which required that type of woofer), or was dead set on using the BG midrange, and then had to choose everything else to match. Even if a company builds their own drivers, there are compromises to be made there as well. Of course, enclosure type makes a difference too. As Paul stated, horns are super efficient (Klipschorns have an efficiency rating of 105dB, and horns used to be very common in sound reinforcement, where high volume is required, until small, lightweight pro amplifiers started being manufactured with switching power supplies), because they perform mechanical impedance matching between the driver and the air (this sort of stuff is way above my pay grade, and I'm not going to even pretend that I understand it). Bass reflex speakers are generally more efficient than acoustic suspension, but of course, each enclosure design brings with it its own set of compromises.
It's largely due to the materials used in the components, the enclosure, and the crossover. In other words: it depends on how the speakers were made. It's cost effective to use less musical materials to mass produce products - like nearly everything that BOSE has made.
Its been said before (many times), but at the risk of being a bore, for well designed speakers, you get 2 of the following three: compactness, sensitivity, & low frequency response. Designers have to decide which are the most important features to them and their customers. Hard to make a small driver go low in frequency, and when they do, they require quite a bit of excursion to get there, killing their sensitivity. Conversely, a big loudspeaker can be designed to go low and to be efficient, but hey, it's big.
Nice explanation. I always tell my sales staff, that the customer can have it done right, done cheap or done fast, but you only get two of those! All three are not possible. Kinda the same thing, lol.
Terry Thanks a lot for your info! Now I have a completely satisfying response! 👍 Paul made an instructive explanation, but forgot to complete the answer. We have to pardon him because he's always very informative. p.s. Now I know why my new speakers have a lower sensitivity than my previous speakers although they are of better quality and a lot more expensive. They are smaller and have smaller woofers than the previous ones but they have a wider frequency response. (32 Hz to 35 Khz vs 44 Hz to 20 Khz)
Go for great sounding bookshelf s and a beefy subwoofer. That does it for many people. Some of us own Klipsch KLF30's and just know those speakers sound amazing, and Ive never met a woman that likes how much room they take up.
@@LarsonChristopher I agree with you, but I would even go further. Once, at a neighbor, I heard very simple computer speaker system with a little subwoofer and I was surprised at how good the sound was! What is important is the content. And you really can have a very good sense of the music with a very simple and very affordable system. An ''audiophile'' system is simply one that is enough to enable you to receive the *meaning* of the music. And for that you don't need 200000$ system of even a 500$ system. At times, I listen to music with my little bluetooth speaker and I am totally satisfied with what I hear. It is a good bluetooth speaker, but far from being expensive (Around 100 CAD$...) p.s. But when we can upgrade a little, it is not unwelcome... 😊
Through my upgrades given same components, I noticed higher efficiency speakers easily get louder at 60% volume with no tight low end and when we go beyond that like 70 to 75 % volume they get start distortion or we get ear fatigue.On other hand lower efficiency speakers needed to play at higher volume but we get very good lower end ,space and whooping dynamics with details.
efficiency is hard to get very high, I own 99db efficient speakers and they get insanely loud and still get very low, they are towers that hit as low as 27hz and get to play over 125db when given 1000 watts (with a high pass filter of 40hz) they use 15 inch pro woofers as well as a 6.5 inch mid and compression driver as well as using a waveguide on the mid and CD. if these were say to be 93db at 1w watt 1 meter they may hit down to 20hz. but if using a subwoofer its better to be 99db than 93db. BTW 30hz and up on 2 channel mode at higher volumes punches you hard in the chest with the bass. feels and sounds like being on stage at a concert.
Really Paul? A Radio Shack "Realistic" microphone stand? How long has that been hanging around. I chuckle because I still use mine which is the exact same model. If it ain't broke, don't replace it. Thanks for the video!
Can’t believe how much I learned in this one video. Terms I’ve been aware of, but couldn’t exactly define as well as out and out revelations of why people use horns (low powered tube amps need them -never knew why they always seem to be paired- the veil was finally lifted) and how they work, as well as other things. Crazy how many videos I’ve watched on UA-cam and all the stereophile magazines I’ve read since the 90s, all without these explanations. Thank you so much. If I had a trophy to hand out for the best audio video I’ve ever seen, you’d get it, Sir! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
That is a master class of the only stat we can trust on speakers: sensitivity. Horn wave guides do not make sound, they simply restrict where the sound goes.
A simpler explanation: I like the detail when I listen to Quad electrostatic loudspeakers, but they are very inefficient. If you try to drive them too hard, sparks occur between the electrostatic membranes blowing holes in them. They are rather expensive to repair. The speakers I _own_ are transmission lines using conventional drivers and they are _very_ efficient. I don't need to drive them hard to generate very loud sounds. I'm not actually after very loud; I'm after being able to listen to a wide dynamic range and my speakers are much better at this than my friend's Quads. OTOH I can't hear as fine detail through my speakers as he can through his. It would be nice to have both dynamic range and detail.
I JUST BLEW MY OWN MIND!!! Why in this day and age of digital are we futzing around with passive crossovers?! TRULY!!! You want your system to be as STRAIGHT WIRE as possible!!! You have a FPGA which you can pretty much program to do ANYTHING!!! Configure so it outputs multi frequency per channel, LMH-LEFT & LMH-RIGHT *DIRECT* to each tower speaker enclosure via optical which would have discrete LowMidHigh decoder going to each individual insertable rack mount type amplifier for each speaker. Phasing, crossover point can be adjusted for each speaker....IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN VIA INTERNAL SELF TEST!!!😳🤯
@@Synthematix Not just EQ. My lower mid and bass is directly connected to the amp. The low pass filtering is done mechanically with the cabinet filler, damping pads on the cone and unstated modifications to the driver by the manufacturer (SEAS). My speakers generate 95 dB at 1 metre with 1 Watt input. I love 'em.
@Josh Atkinson When I started getting into audio it was mostly digital files, so computers are all fine with me. :) I can EQ bass peaks in my room easily etc. I haven't tried active crossovers yet however - aside from using the PC to simulate crossovers with the EQ so I can make a passive one lol. All tuned by ear though as I don't have frequency response measurements.
Another great video, thanks for all you do for us. You mentioned that the AM-3 would have built in amps of 700w each, can I assume those will essentially be the Stellar m-700 boards?
Sensitivity is measured on axis, close to the loudspeaker, and is just one specification that needs to be taken into consideration among all the others - you can't tell much about a speaker just from this. That's like saying a car gets 30 mpg: is that highway or city? How fast does it accelerate? How well does it stop? How many cylinders does the engine have and how much displacement? How well does it go around corners and bends while going fast? Etc. A 2010 Lexus HS 250h and 1988 Ford Festiva both got 35 mpg, but there's so much difference in these two vehicles. A question I always ask in looking at loudspeaker SPL measurement is "why does it have that number?" A loudspeaker driver may have low sensitivity because it's a crappy driver, while another has very accurate wide dispersion so it has less energy directly on axis. A line source loudspeaker (not necessarily a line array) may have lower SPL at 1 m, but loses less energy over distance (Renkus Heinz Iconyx show SPL @ 30.5 meters). You need to make use of the following charts: frequency response, polar response and THD. If the manufacturer is not supplying this information, then why not? When choosing a loudspeaker, remember: all things considered. Happy listening!
Typically for most speaker systems it is the woofer that determines sensitivity. There is a law of physics called the IRON law that states that there are three parameters for a speaker system which are size, bass extension, and sensitivity. For a given type of system (sealed vs ported design) you can improve on any two of the parameters at the expense of the other but you cannot improve on all three at the same time. For example you cannot have a small speaker system with deep bass extension and high sensitivity. You cannot break the laws of physics but it is possible to bend them a bit such as using equalization to extend the bass response.
Hence the reason behind how complicated it can be to figure out your crossovers. You guys are engineers, and it's STILL taken you several months to figure out what works. When those AN-3's are done, they're going to be awesome!! Great explanation, Paul!
It does not help that the speaker is 95 db when it dips far below 4 ohms when playing music or when volume is turned up. then it is not an easy-to-drive speaker. So flat response is very important. There are very few speakers manufacturers who are willing to state what the minimum dip is. My speakers are rated at 104 db 10 ohms (8 ohms minimum). very important info when shopping for equipment.
As Paul has stated in the past, engineering a product is a series of compromises. Since as noted in the video, a loudspeaker's sensitivity is based on the sensitivity of the least sensitive driver, it's possible that the designer wanted to use a particular woofer or type of woofer, or wanted a particular type of enclosure (which required that type of woofer), or was dead set on using the BG midrange, and then had to choose everything else to match. Even if a company builds their own drivers, there are compromises to be made there as well. Of course, enclosure type makes a difference too. As Paul stated, horns are super efficient (Klipschorns have an efficiency rating of 105dB, and horns used to be very common in sound reinforcement, where high volume is required, until small, lightweight pro amplifiers started being manufactured with switching power supplies), because they perform mechanical impedance matching between the driver and the air (this sort of stuff is way above my pay grade, and I'm not going to even pretend that I understand it). Bass reflex speakers are generally more efficient than acoustic suspension, but of course, each enclosure design brings with it its own set of compromises.
Paul the other day i was listening to your talk on speaker sensitivity the one thing i think you missed was WATTS- by that i mean it takes twice the power to get a +3 db increase so speaker sensitivity is very important
Not mentioned is that for speakers without powered woofers, unlike the AN-3, you can only have two out of three of bass extension, efficiency, and small cabinets.
Oh, a Realistic mic stand. Nice!! I miss the old Radio Shack stores. :(. BTW Radio Shack is still kicking and alive on Amazon. You can buy new stuff online :) But it’s nothing like the olden days going into the store... I do have lots of RS stuff!! I have two of the 200 in One Electronics Learning Labs. My home theater surrounds are all Optimus Minimus 7 Pros. One of my listening rooms is my favorite RS speaker, the Optimus T-120 tower speakers paired with the Dynaco ST-70 and Yamaha integrated preamp & the Realistic 10 band EQ with spectrum display. The other listening room I have also has a Dynaco ST70 with Dynaco A-25 loudspeakers with original Seas speakers. All this old stuff isn’t ideal for those that don’t have the knack for diy hands on repair and servicing. All speaker surrounds I’ve had to refoam the cones. The Dynaco amp, I’ve stripped all the way down to the chassis and rebuilt. The RS EQ I’ve recapped with audio grade caps.
Not so handy 30-40 years later. I'm looking at a Technics SB-402 speaker, remembering the trouble we've had to bring the pots back to life and I'll say "no" to pots on speakers ever again ..
Your graph looks rather squiggly. I remember years ago when consumer reports had frequency response graphs of all the speakers they were testing and the Dahlquist DQ10's had the flattest lines of them all but where each driver started and stopped it was off a few dB. Which tells me they drivers had no ringing problems and would be perfect if you set the levels of the drivers to be the same. The Bose 901 won of course but its graph was very rough. One interesting thing about my Acoustats is that its the high frequencies that draw the most power not the bass. The electrostatic panels are a 3300 PF load. It's not so easy to measure sensitivity as you can't measure 1 watt going into the speaker. Its a special direct drive amp. But I get a top volume of 104dB from my chair and that enough for me.
Paul should have mentioned the sensitivity of the mid bass coupler too.. the lower bass unit is independent and its sensitivity doesn't matter as its driven by a separate amplifier ( I hope it's NOT a class D type as they are not really suitable for high power LF use )
@Janina That's what impressed me about PS Audio all these months ago. I was contemplating purchasing a Sprout 100 (class D) and they told me it wasn't very well suited to my needs.
One reason for lower sensitivity designs can be summed up as DRIVER CONTROL and therefore ACCURACY. IOW....a “restrictive” speaker (or speaker driver) design takes more watts to get moving....so a restrictive speaker has an increased “dampening” factor
Get some tar based bitumen panels either side of the driver used in the car industry about 6 inches deep from the front baffle right up to the edge about 6 inches wide as well. What dampening material are you using?. Try using paper and oil for the tweeter and mid-range planer and the piston driver they are the best that German company makes then mundorf mCAP supreme silver oil capacity or Evo oil caps
Paul, is the lowest sensitivity driver's efficacy driven by the cost of manufacturing? Could speakers of low sensitivity, ex. 85 db, be improved if the manufacturer spent more money to raise the efficiency higher? Is it a cost thing I guess is what I'm asking. Thanks for the great videos!
Sensitivity, the reason why an 85W Fender twin reverb equipped with a pair of JBL D120F's will cause permanent hearing damage. Also, you can gain sensitivity by having more drivers, although the frequencies over which this works are limited by how close you can put the drivers to each other, so practical application of this is limited.
Thanks Paul, but you didn't really explain why there are high quality inefficient speakers. What parameters are being optimised at the expense of efficiency? Otherwise no decent manufacturer would make an inefficient loudspeaker.
The first thing I'll consider is that efficient speakers tend to show problems with the setup (amp, preamp etc.) much more clearly. Noise from the cables, a faulty but not severed ground somewhere, that kind of thing.
You are right, Paul did not really answer the question. But as you try to make drivers lighter for higher efficiency, they tend to deviate from flat frequency response. Imagine a very very light paper cone driver. It will be more efficient, but will have resonances and distortions as the paper deforms under the stress. Every little bit of mass that you add to strengthen it, or damp out a resonance, will sap energy that reduces its efficiency. By the time you get to a reasonably flat response, your sensitivity is down below 90 dB. Passive crossovers will then rob the system of another few dB.
mfr58, Another way of looking at it is: as you try to make your frequency response curve flatter, you cannot boost the valleys very easily-you can only reduce the peaks. That makes it less loud overall.
Its harder to run a speaker at Exactly 1W , then it is to run it at 1000W. It is about precision , but also math , and measurements . There is so much play in there that i think if you take 10 commercially available speakers rated at 95dB /W , you would find that all are different even just by listening without measuring .Because its one of those things that you put in your ratings
Hey Paul, I’ve been meaning to ask you...who’s that guy at the end of your videos that, instead of waving, holds up both of his arms and crosses them into an “X?”
Yeah I can hear fairly distinct separation between the bass, mids and treble on that speaker. But I guess it's pretty decent considering it has a 0-2 inch variable aperture opening, 2 smaller reflex tubes, 3 separate resonance chambers, and a special kind of air motion transformer system hidden inside there somewhere...
So why aren't you guys using an anechoic chamber for these graphs and sensitivity levels? Or a better question is before they get produced will you test them in an anechoic chamber? Thanks Paul!
Our new building came with an anechoic chamber but, alas, it was torn down before we moved in. It's a long and sad story. In any case, that chamber cost $1M to construct. It's a lot easier and less expensive to use the quasi-anechoic response of the Clio measurement system and there's really no disadvantage.
what about raising sensitivity by making frequecy response more narrow. lime the jbl 8mb4p wich is 97db but has a narrow frequency response. of course enclosures would need more drivers. but you could get a very high sensitivity !
Paul, you're supposed to measure at 1 watt @ meter using a specialised pressure-field microphone within an anechoic chamber, otherwise the test results won't be accurate?
@@fookingsog Most professional speakers have their efficiency and frequency response measured in anechoic conditions using a pressure-field microphone. Non professional speakers are far more flexible and are often measured in normal live rooms up to 2 meters away with variants up to 12dB being acceptable.
the purpose of anechoic chamber is to exclude room acoustic from the measurement. because room acoustic is very unpredictable, it can vary wildly just by moving a coffee mug. measuring a speaker in a living room yields no meaningful results.
@@ProjectOverseer actually you use a free field microphone in an anechoic room. Having a 1/r free field is literally the definition of an anechoic room.
Paul, what do you think about the "Heritage" series from Klipsch? I can't wait to hear your speakers! Thanks so much for this and all the great videos that you do for us. I thought I knew a fair bit about audio but I have learned SO much more thanks to you! :)
Paul is not a fan of Horns. Steve Guttenburg has a few videos on the Klipsch Heritage. I have a pair of Heresy 3's, I really like the way they sound, and I do use them with a sub. I listen to my Klipsch KLF30's far more often.
@@LarsonChristopher Thanks Chris, you have some nice Klipsch speakers! I would love to have a pair of Heresy 3's. Klipsch has priced me out of their Heritage line altogether. I read an article about a pair of K-horns from a 2018 piece in Stereophile magazine and they were $15K! I love them but not for that much, plus you still need 2 good subs to go with them. Keep healthy and thanks again!
PWK (Klipsch) Determined that the HIGHER the sensitivity the LOWER the NON-LINEAR DISTORTION. also FLAT response (Linear distortion) less important than NON-linear distortion (AM,FM,IMD,HD,Dopler)
I am really wondering, with car speakers and amplifiers, how do I factor in speaker sensitivity when I'm sorting out which amplifier will play nice with my speakers? All the articles I read and videos I watched on matching speakers with amplifiers talked about watts and ohms and impedance, but not one of them mentioned speaker sensitivity. There has to be a simple math equation for this.
Funny it just recommended another very similar video from Paul. Again, high sensitivity has always been cheap speakers with low damping. I haven’t been impressed as much as higher power systems. With better control.
Congratulations for your channel! I have a question. What about high sensitivity speakers and distortion at high volume levels? Do they work with less distortion than the speakers with low sensitivity?
I am assuming that high efficiency takes more expensive materials, especially in the magnets? If that wasn't so, high efficiency drivers would be dime a dozen.
Yes and no , high efficiency can also be achieved by very low moving mass (very light membrane e.g.) This will work for a midrange , but for a woofer this will increase it's resonance frequency and therefore you will suffer low end bass . It's a compromise as always . High magnetic field strength will increase efficiency , but comes at a significant cost
@@gerritgovaerts8443 Also larger speakers _tend_ to be more efficient. Mine are rated 95dB @ 1 metre and 1 watt. They are 1.5 metres tall. Their predecessors were a quarter of the volume and only rated at 89 dB @ 1 metre and 1 watt.
Generally, yes. The more you spend will get you away from paper and plastic woofers. You will be in the aluminum, alloy, titanium and beryllium areas. Also, neodymium for magnets costs more than iron. Speaker enclosure size can greatly help. My Klipsch KLF30's give you huge dynamic range, massively high SPL potential (they get far too loud for the room), and use good components (they have been upgraded). The one thing they lack is a compact size. You cant win every battle.
The answer should have had more to do with the history of high efficiency speakers, low wattage tube amps, to high current/wattage power solid state amps and lower efficiency speakers etc.
Ugghh... I don't like the question. I mean really? So a set of huge tower speakers with some very large drivers will obviously have a lower sensitivity than a little set of bookshelf speakers with smaller drivers. Sensitivity is not a good indication of how "loud" a speaker will get, rather it's more of an indication of how power hungry a speaker is..... Now, please continue Paul.... :-)
I've seen sensitivity spec'd both ways, as per Watt or per 2.83 Volts, which gives you 1 watt into 8 ohms. You must be careful, because they do mean different things. A 4 ohm speaker may look like it has high sensitivity, like 90dB/2.83v, which is 2 watts into 4 ohms. That 4 ohm speaker then, is actually 87dB/W efficiency.
@@TheMirolab The amplifier would have to change the voltage with frequency during the chirp to manage to sink 1W into the speaker as the impedance is frequency dependant and to make it all worse, also complex. As most current amplifiers are in fact voltage sources, the watts really don't matter anymore. 90W/1W/1m 4ohms just means that the measurement is scaled to 1m distance (for such large driver separation Paul should measure in larger distance and scale back) at constant voltage corresponding to 1W in nominal impedance. For a 4 ohm speaker that is 2V, for an 8ohms speaker that is 2.83V etc. Typically we don't talk about power efficiency in speakers. The numbers wouldn't be flattering.
@@fvu7296 I'm starting to become somewhat confused. I went and looked at a manufacturer's (VAF Design) specs for speakers where the voltage is specified: i66 is 6 ohms (nominal) and 89 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V) DC-X is 6 ohms (nominal) and 94 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V) [this is what I have] DC-2 is 4 ohms (nominal) and 86 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V) i93 is 4 ohms (nominal) and 89 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V) It seems to me that dB @ 1W & 1 m conveys more meaning than does voltage. The relative sensitivities appear sensible given the differing designs. Logically, 89¬=94¬=86 whereas 2.83=2.83=2.83...
But why don't speaker manufacturers use drivers and tweeters that are higher sensitivity? They exist, so why don't they use them? Is it to keep cost lower so they can charge a lower price?
But does a high sensitivity woofer sound worse than the low sensitivity? Why cant we just put high sensitivity pa drivers in our speakers? Whats the downside?
It would take some large magnets, large woofers, and horns to hit 107. My Klipsch KLF30's have dual horns, dual 12's rated at 102, and can handle 200w rms and 600w peak.
He did answer it. If only high sensitivity drivers existed in the world, then speaker designers could only build high sensitivity speakers and all speakers would have high sensitivity. Designers can choose low sensitivity drivers to meet their design goals so that is why not all speakers are high sensitivity speakers. Take the Elac Uni-fi B5. Andrew Jones selected low sensitivity driver(s) to achieve his design goals so they are low sensitivity speakers.
@@briansimmons5363 No he didn't answer it. The question was if a higher sensitivity speaker is better. Not how they measure and arrive at the sensitivity. Higher sensitivity means more dynamic, greater volume for less power. Sounds like a win win. So why don't all manufactures just use higher sensitivity elements like Tannoy or ProAc. What's the advantage of low sensitivity. There must be something otherwise why do they choose low sensitivity elements unless its just to sell more powerful amps. Design goals are rearly less efficiently for no gains so what are they?
You didn't answer the man's question. Nice discussion about speaker science, but he wanted to know why more manufacturers don't make high sensitivity speakers and if there are sonic differences between low and high sensitivity speakers. You didn't answer either of his questions. You strayed way off into the weeds.
This is the best description of sensitivity in speaker design that I have heard someone give to all of us "non engineer eeducated" listeners. Thank you for this video.
I would love for my wife and my speakers to swap sensitivity...
@Bumble Bee Well it doesnt take much for her to get loud thats for sure ^_^ I estimate she is around 120db and that is with a very peaky frequency response ! ... maybe i should work with the room acoustics and see if i can tame her a little !
🤣🤣🤣
HA HA HA HA HA
😂😂😂
Damn
Go google Hoffman's Iron Law, people. High sensitivity = big boxes and/or weak bass extension. If you want bass extension, then you need to lower the sensitivity and/or make the box bigger. If you want a small box, then expect low sensitivity and/or shallow bass.
But it would have been nice to hear the answer to the question.....why are they not all high efficiency? He did a good job explaining how it’s measured......
That's not easy to do.
As Paul has stated in the past, engineering a product is a series of compromises. Since as noted in the video, a loudspeaker's sensitivity is based on the sensitivity of the least sensitive driver, it's possible that the designer wanted to use a particular woofer or type of woofer, or wanted a particular type of enclosure (which required that type of woofer), or was dead set on using the BG midrange, and then had to choose everything else to match. Even if a company builds their own drivers, there are compromises to be made there as well.
Of course, enclosure type makes a difference too. As Paul stated, horns are super efficient (Klipschorns have an efficiency rating of 105dB, and horns used to be very common in sound reinforcement, where high volume is required, until small, lightweight pro amplifiers started being manufactured with switching power supplies), because they perform mechanical impedance matching between the driver and the air (this sort of stuff is way above my pay grade, and I'm not going to even pretend that I understand it). Bass reflex speakers are generally more efficient than acoustic suspension, but of course, each enclosure design brings with it its own set of compromises.
They are not all high efficiency because companies have different design philosophies and ideas on how their product should sound.
If it's not high efficiency, then it's not efficient.
It's largely due to the materials used in the components, the enclosure, and the crossover. In other words: it depends on how the speakers were made. It's cost effective to use less musical materials to mass produce products - like nearly everything that BOSE has made.
Its been said before (many times), but at the risk of being a bore, for well designed speakers, you get 2 of the following three: compactness, sensitivity, & low frequency response. Designers have to decide which are the most important features to them and their customers. Hard to make a small driver go low in frequency, and when they do, they require quite a bit of excursion to get there, killing their sensitivity. Conversely, a big loudspeaker can be designed to go low and to be efficient, but hey, it's big.
Nice explanation. I always tell my sales staff, that the customer can have it done right, done cheap or done fast, but you only get two of those! All three are not possible. Kinda the same thing, lol.
@@tifosinh That's a good analogy. :^)
Terry
Thanks a lot for your info! Now I have a completely satisfying response! 👍
Paul made an instructive explanation, but forgot to complete the answer.
We have to pardon him because he's always very informative.
p.s. Now I know why my new speakers have a lower sensitivity than my previous speakers although they are of better quality and a lot more expensive.
They are smaller and have smaller woofers than the previous ones but they have a wider frequency response. (32 Hz to 35 Khz vs 44 Hz to 20 Khz)
Go for great sounding bookshelf s and a beefy subwoofer. That does it for many people. Some of us own Klipsch KLF30's and just know those speakers sound amazing, and Ive never met a woman that likes how much room they take up.
@@LarsonChristopher
I agree with you, but I would even go further.
Once, at a neighbor, I heard very simple computer speaker system with a little subwoofer and I was surprised at how good the sound was!
What is important is the content. And you really can have a very good sense of the music with a very simple and very affordable system.
An ''audiophile'' system is simply one that is enough to enable you to receive the *meaning* of the music.
And for that you don't need 200000$ system of even a 500$ system. At times, I listen to music with my little bluetooth speaker and I am totally satisfied with what I hear.
It is a good bluetooth speaker, but far from being expensive (Around 100 CAD$...)
p.s. But when we can upgrade a little, it is not unwelcome... 😊
Through my upgrades given same components, I noticed higher efficiency speakers easily get louder at 60% volume with no tight low end and when we go beyond that like 70 to 75 % volume they get start distortion or we get ear fatigue.On other hand lower efficiency speakers needed to play at higher volume but we get very good lower end ,space and whooping dynamics with details.
efficiency is hard to get very high, I own 99db efficient speakers and they get insanely loud and still get very low, they are towers that hit as low as 27hz and get to play over 125db when given 1000 watts (with a high pass filter of 40hz) they use 15 inch pro woofers as well as a 6.5 inch mid and compression driver as well as using a waveguide on the mid and CD. if these were say to be 93db at 1w watt 1 meter they may hit down to 20hz. but if using a subwoofer its better to be 99db than 93db. BTW 30hz and up on 2 channel mode at higher volumes punches you hard in the chest with the bass. feels and sounds like being on stage at a concert.
You know someone truly understands something when they can take complexity and make it plain. Paul is that dude.
Really Paul? A Radio Shack "Realistic" microphone stand? How long has that been hanging around. I chuckle because I still use mine which is the exact same model. If it ain't broke, don't replace it. Thanks for the video!
Can’t believe how much I learned in this one video. Terms I’ve been aware of, but couldn’t exactly define as well as out and out revelations of why people use horns (low powered tube amps need them -never knew why they always seem to be paired- the veil was finally lifted) and how they work, as well as other things. Crazy how many videos I’ve watched on UA-cam and all the stereophile magazines I’ve read since the 90s, all without these explanations. Thank you so much. If I had a trophy to hand out for the best audio video I’ve ever seen, you’d get it, Sir!
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Im always careful what I say around my speakers. They are very sensitive and don't want to hurt their feelings.
Hahahaa! Love it.
Sort of like asking why don't all cars get high gas mileage?
That is a master class of the only stat we can trust on speakers: sensitivity.
Horn wave guides do not make sound, they simply restrict where the sound goes.
A simpler explanation: I like the detail when I listen to Quad electrostatic loudspeakers, but they are very inefficient. If you try to drive them too hard, sparks occur between the electrostatic membranes blowing holes in them. They are rather expensive to repair. The speakers I _own_ are transmission lines using conventional drivers and they are _very_ efficient. I don't need to drive them hard to generate very loud sounds. I'm not actually after very loud; I'm after being able to listen to a wide dynamic range and my speakers are much better at this than my friend's Quads. OTOH I can't hear as fine detail through my speakers as he can through his. It would be nice to have both dynamic range and detail.
I JUST BLEW MY OWN MIND!!! Why in this day and age of digital are we futzing around with passive crossovers?! TRULY!!! You want your system to be as STRAIGHT WIRE as possible!!! You have a FPGA which you can pretty much program to do ANYTHING!!! Configure so it outputs multi frequency per channel, LMH-LEFT & LMH-RIGHT *DIRECT* to each tower speaker enclosure via optical which would have discrete LowMidHigh decoder going to each individual insertable rack mount type amplifier for each speaker. Phasing, crossover point can be adjusted for each speaker....IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN VIA INTERNAL SELF TEST!!!😳🤯
correct the least amount of things in the signal path the better. all you need is resistors in the speaker, all the rest can be done with an eq
@@Synthematix Not just EQ. My lower mid and bass is directly connected to the amp. The low pass filtering is done mechanically with the cabinet filler, damping pads on the cone and unstated modifications to the driver by the manufacturer (SEAS). My speakers generate 95 dB at 1 metre with 1 Watt input. I love 'em.
@Josh Atkinson When I started getting into audio it was mostly digital files, so computers are all fine with me. :) I can EQ bass peaks in my room easily etc. I haven't tried active crossovers yet however - aside from using the PC to simulate crossovers with the EQ so I can make a passive one lol. All tuned by ear though as I don't have frequency response measurements.
Another great video, thanks for all you do for us.
You mentioned that the AM-3 would have built in amps of 700w each, can I assume those will essentially be the Stellar m-700 boards?
In another video he mentions that they will be the same ICE chips as the m700, but different circuitry since its only used for the bottom end
That makes sense, why bother with extended frequency response when you only have to control up to a few hundred Hz.
Sensitivity is measured on axis, close to the loudspeaker, and is just one specification that needs to be taken into consideration among all the others - you can't tell much about a speaker just from this. That's like saying a car gets 30 mpg: is that highway or city? How fast does it accelerate? How well does it stop? How many cylinders does the engine have and how much displacement? How well does it go around corners and bends while going fast? Etc. A 2010 Lexus HS 250h and 1988 Ford Festiva both got 35 mpg, but there's so much difference in these two vehicles.
A question I always ask in looking at loudspeaker SPL measurement is "why does it have that number?" A loudspeaker driver may have low sensitivity because it's a crappy driver, while another has very accurate wide dispersion so it has less energy directly on axis. A line source loudspeaker (not necessarily a line array) may have lower SPL at 1 m, but loses less energy over distance (Renkus Heinz Iconyx show SPL @ 30.5 meters). You need to make use of the following charts: frequency response, polar response and THD. If the manufacturer is not supplying this information, then why not?
When choosing a loudspeaker, remember: all things considered. Happy listening!
Typically for most speaker systems it is the woofer that determines sensitivity. There is a law of physics called the IRON law that states that there are three parameters for a speaker system which are size, bass extension, and sensitivity. For a given type of system (sealed vs ported design) you can improve on any two of the parameters at the expense of the other but you cannot improve on all three at the same time. For example you cannot have a small speaker system with deep bass extension and high sensitivity. You cannot break the laws of physics but it is possible to bend them a bit such as using equalization to extend the bass response.
Hence the reason behind how complicated it can be to figure out your crossovers. You guys are engineers, and it's STILL taken you several months to figure out what works. When those AN-3's are done, they're going to be awesome!! Great explanation, Paul!
I'm still waiting for them to use active crossovers with per driver amplification!!!....can you say "Rip Van Winkle"???😂😂😂
It does not help that the speaker is 95 db when it dips far below 4 ohms when playing music or when volume is turned up. then it is not an easy-to-drive speaker. So flat response is very important. There are very few speakers manufacturers who are willing to state what the minimum dip is. My speakers are rated at 104 db 10 ohms (8 ohms minimum). very important info when shopping for equipment.
As Paul has stated in the past, engineering a product is a series of compromises. Since as noted in the video, a loudspeaker's sensitivity is based on the sensitivity of the least sensitive driver, it's possible that the designer wanted to use a particular woofer or type of woofer, or wanted a particular type of enclosure (which required that type of woofer), or was dead set on using the BG midrange, and then had to choose everything else to match. Even if a company builds their own drivers, there are compromises to be made there as well.
Of course, enclosure type makes a difference too. As Paul stated, horns are super efficient (Klipschorns have an efficiency rating of 105dB, and horns used to be very common in sound reinforcement, where high volume is required, until small, lightweight pro amplifiers started being manufactured with switching power supplies), because they perform mechanical impedance matching between the driver and the air (this sort of stuff is way above my pay grade, and I'm not going to even pretend that I understand it). Bass reflex speakers are generally more efficient than acoustic suspension, but of course, each enclosure design brings with it its own set of compromises.
Paul the other day i was listening to your talk on speaker sensitivity the one thing i think you missed was WATTS- by that i mean it takes twice the power to get a +3 db increase so speaker sensitivity is very important
Not mentioned is that for speakers without powered woofers, unlike the AN-3, you can only have two out of three of bass extension, efficiency, and small cabinets.
Oh, a Realistic mic stand. Nice!! I miss the old Radio Shack stores. :(. BTW Radio Shack is still kicking and alive on Amazon. You can buy new stuff online :) But it’s nothing like the olden days going into the store... I do have lots of RS stuff!! I have two of the 200 in One Electronics Learning Labs. My home theater surrounds are all Optimus Minimus 7 Pros. One of my listening rooms is my favorite RS speaker, the Optimus T-120 tower speakers paired with the Dynaco ST-70 and Yamaha integrated preamp & the Realistic 10 band EQ with spectrum display. The other listening room I have also has a Dynaco ST70 with Dynaco A-25 loudspeakers with original Seas speakers.
All this old stuff isn’t ideal for those that don’t have the knack for diy hands on repair and servicing. All speaker surrounds I’ve had to refoam the cones. The Dynaco amp, I’ve stripped all the way down to the chassis and rebuilt. The RS EQ I’ve recapped with audio grade caps.
Some speakers used to have a sensitivity or volume tweeter knob. That was handy
Not so handy 30-40 years later. I'm looking at a Technics SB-402 speaker, remembering the trouble we've had to bring the pots back to life and I'll say "no" to pots on speakers ever again ..
@@MrTheDarku mmm yeah.
@@MrTheDarku Better was a switch with a small number of fixed resistors. I feel your pain...
Man...this is gold ! thanks you so much for putting up these videos :)
Your graph looks rather squiggly. I remember years ago when consumer reports had frequency response graphs of all the speakers they were testing and the Dahlquist DQ10's had the flattest lines of them all but where each driver started and stopped it was off a few dB. Which tells me they drivers had no ringing problems and would be perfect if you set the levels of the drivers to be the same. The Bose 901 won of course but its graph was very rough. One interesting thing about my Acoustats is that its the high frequencies that draw the most power not the bass. The electrostatic panels are a 3300 PF load. It's not so easy to measure sensitivity as you can't measure 1 watt going into the speaker. Its a special direct drive amp. But I get a top volume of 104dB from my chair and that enough for me.
Paul should have mentioned the sensitivity of the mid bass coupler too.. the lower bass unit is independent and its sensitivity doesn't matter as its driven by a separate amplifier ( I hope it's NOT a class D type as they are not really suitable for high power LF use )
@Janina That's what impressed me about PS Audio all these months ago. I was contemplating purchasing a Sprout 100 (class D) and they told me it wasn't very well suited to my needs.
One reason for lower sensitivity designs can be summed up as DRIVER CONTROL and therefore ACCURACY. IOW....a “restrictive” speaker (or speaker driver) design takes more watts to get moving....so a restrictive speaker has an increased “dampening” factor
Get some tar based bitumen panels either side of the driver used in the car industry about 6 inches deep from the front baffle right up to the edge about 6 inches wide as well.
What dampening material are you using?. Try using paper and oil for the tweeter and mid-range planer and the piston driver they are the best that German company makes then mundorf mCAP supreme silver oil capacity or Evo oil caps
John sweda dear Sir, where can I listen and buy your speakers?
@@ArnoldVroomans watches space you never know!
Paul, is the lowest sensitivity driver's efficacy driven by the cost of manufacturing? Could speakers of low sensitivity, ex. 85 db, be improved if the manufacturer spent more money to raise the efficiency higher? Is it a cost thing I guess is what I'm asking. Thanks for the great videos!
Sensitivity, the reason why an 85W Fender twin reverb equipped with a pair of JBL D120F's will cause permanent hearing damage. Also, you can gain sensitivity by having more drivers, although the frequencies over which this works are limited by how close you can put the drivers to each other, so practical application of this is limited.
Thanks Paul, but you didn't really explain why there are high quality inefficient speakers. What parameters are being optimised at the expense of efficiency? Otherwise no decent manufacturer would make an inefficient loudspeaker.
The first thing I'll consider is that efficient speakers tend to show problems with the setup (amp, preamp etc.) much more clearly. Noise from the cables, a faulty but not severed ground somewhere, that kind of thing.
You are right, Paul did not really answer the question. But as you try to make drivers lighter for higher efficiency, they tend to deviate from flat frequency response. Imagine a very very light paper cone driver. It will be more efficient, but will have resonances and distortions as the paper deforms under the stress. Every little bit of mass that you add to strengthen it, or damp out a resonance, will sap energy that reduces its efficiency. By the time you get to a reasonably flat response, your sensitivity is down below 90 dB. Passive crossovers will then rob the system of another few dB.
mfr58, Another way of looking at it is: as you try to make your frequency response curve flatter, you cannot boost the valleys very easily-you can only reduce the peaks. That makes it less loud overall.
High efficiency
High impedance
Deep Bass
Pick 2/3
@@TheMirolab It's also a lot of fun watching a woofer cone with a strobe light. Talk about distortions...
I suppose the "AN" in AN3 is a tribute to Arnie Nudell?
Brian Simmons ~ Who else ?!
Its harder to run a speaker at Exactly 1W , then it is to run it at 1000W. It is about precision , but also math , and measurements . There is so much play in there that i think if you take 10 commercially available speakers rated at 95dB /W , you would find that all are different even just by listening without measuring .Because its one of those things that you put in your ratings
"I can't get your love"
"I can't get electrostatic attraction"
I am from electrical ....dept ..
Nothing goong wrong ...
My experience is that electrostatic speakers, specifically tweeters, reproduce higher frequencies more cleanly
Hey Paul, I’ve been meaning to ask you...who’s that guy at the end of your videos that, instead of waving, holds up both of his arms and crosses them into an “X?”
You definitely have your microphone hooked up. I can see the meter moving on the screen as you speak. :-)
Yeah I can hear fairly distinct separation between the bass, mids and treble on that speaker. But I guess it's pretty decent considering it has a 0-2 inch variable aperture opening, 2 smaller reflex tubes, 3 separate resonance chambers, and a special kind of air motion transformer system hidden inside there somewhere...
So why aren't you guys using an anechoic chamber for these graphs and sensitivity levels? Or a better question is before they get produced will you test them in an anechoic chamber? Thanks Paul!
Our new building came with an anechoic chamber but, alas, it was torn down before we moved in. It's a long and sad story. In any case, that chamber cost $1M to construct. It's a lot easier and less expensive to use the quasi-anechoic response of the Clio measurement system and there's really no disadvantage.
what about raising sensitivity by making frequecy response more narrow. lime the jbl 8mb4p wich is 97db but has a narrow frequency response. of course enclosures would need more drivers. but you could get a very high sensitivity !
Paul, you're supposed to measure at 1 watt @ meter using a specialised pressure-field microphone within an anechoic chamber, otherwise the test results won't be accurate?
Anechoic is only for testing noise floor.
@@fookingsog
Most professional speakers have their efficiency and frequency response measured in anechoic conditions using a pressure-field microphone.
Non professional speakers are far more flexible and are often measured in normal live rooms up to 2 meters away with variants up to 12dB being acceptable.
the purpose of anechoic chamber is to exclude room acoustic from the measurement. because room acoustic is very unpredictable, it can vary wildly just by moving a coffee mug. measuring a speaker in a living room yields no meaningful results.
@@ped-away-g1396
Yep, absolutely right 👍
@@ProjectOverseer actually you use a free field microphone in an anechoic room. Having a 1/r free field is literally the definition of an anechoic room.
Paul, what do you think about the "Heritage" series from Klipsch? I can't wait to hear your speakers! Thanks so much for this and all the great videos that you do for us. I thought I knew a fair bit about audio but I have learned SO much more thanks to you! :)
Paul is not a fan of Horns. Steve Guttenburg has a few videos on the Klipsch Heritage. I have a pair of Heresy 3's, I really like the way they sound, and I do use them with a sub. I listen to my Klipsch KLF30's far more often.
@@LarsonChristopher Thanks Chris, you have some nice Klipsch speakers! I would love to have a pair of Heresy 3's. Klipsch has priced me out of their Heritage line altogether. I read an article about a pair of K-horns from a 2018 piece in Stereophile magazine and they were $15K! I love them but not for that much, plus you still need 2 good subs to go with them. Keep healthy and thanks again!
PWK (Klipsch) Determined that the HIGHER the sensitivity the LOWER the NON-LINEAR DISTORTION.
also FLAT response (Linear distortion) less important than NON-linear distortion (AM,FM,IMD,HD,Dopler)
You have to contend with higher resonances in light weight materials/horn cavities though, which adds its own kind of distortion.
Great question
I am really wondering, with car speakers and amplifiers, how do I factor in speaker sensitivity when I'm sorting out which amplifier will play nice with my speakers?
All the articles I read and videos I watched on matching speakers with amplifiers talked about watts and ohms and impedance, but not one of them mentioned speaker sensitivity.
There has to be a simple math equation for this.
Funny it just recommended another very similar video from Paul. Again, high sensitivity has always been cheap speakers with low damping. I haven’t been impressed as much as higher power systems. With better control.
Congratulations for your channel!
I have a question. What about high sensitivity speakers and distortion at high volume levels? Do they work with less distortion than the speakers with low sensitivity?
No anecdotes about Norway? About how wonderful it is here? :(
I am assuming that high efficiency takes more expensive materials, especially in the magnets? If that wasn't so, high efficiency drivers would be dime a dozen.
Yes and no , high efficiency can also be achieved by very low moving mass (very light membrane e.g.) This will work for a midrange , but for a woofer this will increase it's resonance frequency and therefore you will suffer low end bass . It's a compromise as always . High magnetic field strength will increase efficiency , but comes at a significant cost
@@gerritgovaerts8443 Also larger speakers _tend_ to be more efficient. Mine are rated 95dB @ 1 metre and 1 watt. They are 1.5 metres tall. Their predecessors were a quarter of the volume and only rated at 89 dB @ 1 metre and 1 watt.
Generally, yes. The more you spend will get you away from paper and plastic woofers. You will be in the aluminum, alloy, titanium and beryllium areas. Also, neodymium for magnets costs more than iron.
Speaker enclosure size can greatly help. My Klipsch KLF30's give you huge dynamic range, massively high SPL potential (they get far too loud for the room), and use good components (they have been upgraded). The one thing they lack is a compact size. You cant win every battle.
The answer should have had more to do with the history of high efficiency speakers, low wattage tube amps, to high current/wattage power solid state amps and lower efficiency speakers etc.
Then make your own video containing those elements.
@@profd65 Great idea. Apparently you don't understand the question either.
that was the long way around lol, thanks for the videos
Great videos, you could home school kids this way. Future would sound great and safe a ton of money on school busses.
Stats sound great in the sweet spot and help clean the air if ya leave them on all day 😂
Ugghh... I don't like the question. I mean really? So a set of huge tower speakers with some very large drivers will obviously have a lower sensitivity than a little set of bookshelf speakers with smaller drivers. Sensitivity is not a good indication of how "loud" a speaker will get, rather it's more of an indication of how power hungry a speaker is..... Now, please continue Paul.... :-)
sensitivity and efficiency go hand in hand
Except it's never 1W but voltage corresponding to 1W in nominal impedance.
I've seen sensitivity spec'd both ways, as per Watt or per 2.83 Volts, which gives you 1 watt into 8 ohms. You must be careful, because they do mean different things. A 4 ohm speaker may look like it has high sensitivity, like 90dB/2.83v, which is 2 watts into 4 ohms. That 4 ohm speaker then, is actually 87dB/W efficiency.
@@TheMirolab The amplifier would have to change the voltage with frequency during the chirp to manage to sink 1W into the speaker as the impedance is frequency dependant and to make it all worse, also complex. As most current amplifiers are in fact voltage sources, the watts really don't matter anymore. 90W/1W/1m 4ohms just means that the measurement is scaled to 1m distance (for such large driver separation Paul should measure in larger distance and scale back) at constant voltage corresponding to 1W in nominal impedance. For a 4 ohm speaker that is 2V, for an 8ohms speaker that is 2.83V etc. Typically we don't talk about power efficiency in speakers. The numbers wouldn't be flattering.
@@fvu7296 I'm starting to become somewhat confused. I went and looked at a manufacturer's (VAF Design) specs for speakers where the voltage is specified:
i66 is 6 ohms (nominal) and 89 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V)
DC-X is 6 ohms (nominal) and 94 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V) [this is what I have]
DC-2 is 4 ohms (nominal) and 86 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V)
i93 is 4 ohms (nominal) and 89 dB @ 1 Watt & 1 metre (2.83V)
It seems to me that dB @ 1W & 1 m conveys more meaning than does voltage. The relative sensitivities appear sensible given the differing designs. Logically, 89¬=94¬=86 whereas 2.83=2.83=2.83...
Fabian
But why don't speaker manufacturers use drivers and tweeters that are higher sensitivity? They exist, so why don't they use them? Is it to keep cost lower so they can charge a lower price?
But does a high sensitivity woofer sound worse than the low sensitivity? Why cant we just put high sensitivity pa drivers in our speakers? Whats the downside?
Well explained, no it wasn't too complicated :)
ATC with 85db drivers all the way for me.
but but but what about all the Bose lifestyle people claiming their speakers are the best? ha
How would you turn a 104 dB sensitive tweeter to match an 85 dB sensitive midrange and woofer? Thanks.
7:53
BirdArvid wouldn’t a resistor change the ohms and frequency response?
How much for the little speaker?
And again not answering the question
I guess I’m not understanding what he’s trying to communicate to the viewers. Is he being forced to work there under duress?
Would I want to add a high sensitivity speakers, like Klipsch. With high efficiency amplifiers, like class D?
A year later and those speakers are nowhere to be found
db is the magic word
So the *REAL* question is, is your sensitivity measured pre- or post- equalization/crossover???🤔
Hey Paul, how about graffic eq?
no, but if you really want one, then check out dbxpro.com/en/product_families/equalizers
And then you will need a real time analyzer to set it up yourself. Else, there is software that can help.
you can't level a woofer down so the woofer is always leading
DIDN’T ANSWER THE QUESTION
the Frazier Model Eleven are huge, probably awful sounding dust collectors that call themselves "loudspeakers" with a claimed efficiency of 107db/Watt
It would take some large magnets, large woofers, and horns to hit 107. My Klipsch KLF30's have dual horns, dual 12's rated at 102, and can handle 200w rms and 600w peak.
And so he puts his glasses on
And to keep with the tradition Paul doesn't answer the question
He did answer it. If only high sensitivity drivers existed in the world, then speaker designers could only build high sensitivity speakers and all speakers would have high sensitivity. Designers can choose low sensitivity drivers to meet their design goals so that is why not all speakers are high sensitivity speakers. Take the Elac Uni-fi B5. Andrew Jones selected low sensitivity driver(s) to achieve his design goals so they are low sensitivity speakers.
Dear ...nothing Comes ..freee..
...upto ....what he teches ..us ...
Thats ...divine ..
Thanks ...
@@briansimmons5363 No he didn't answer it. The question was if a higher sensitivity speaker is better. Not how they measure and arrive at the sensitivity. Higher sensitivity means more dynamic, greater volume for less power. Sounds like a win win. So why don't all manufactures just use higher sensitivity elements like Tannoy or ProAc. What's the advantage of low sensitivity. There must be something otherwise why do they choose low sensitivity elements unless its just to sell more powerful amps. Design goals are rearly less efficiently for no gains so what are they?
@@stephens2r338 I sort of think you've hit the nail on the head. There's the gain to be considered. Financial gain, to be precise :)
@@stephens2r338 Higher Q-factor. More bass at given box size for constant voltage input.
It was one meter until you moved it! 😝
More Pictures More Whiteboard
what wouldEEVblog say?
Not up to Australian standards! Crikey!
So this whole 10 minutes can be summarize to... restricted by the lowest sensitivity driver chosen,
You didn't answer the man's question. Nice discussion about speaker science, but he wanted to know why more manufacturers don't make high sensitivity speakers and if there are sonic differences between low and high sensitivity speakers. You didn't answer either of his questions. You strayed way off into the weeds.
HA, ha, haaaa...........Paul said 'horn' (((O: