How important is speaker sensitivity?

[mtrycrafts]

mtrycrafts, you are deaf so piss off.

I can still read your posts. Take your own advice???

 

[mtrycrafts]

You do not understand I think that mtrycrafts is physicaly deaf yet he argues on an audio forum about how things sound.

I think you forgot who is making what claims about sounds

 

[MacManNM]

I think you forgot who is making what claims about sounds

Yet you can tell everyone what's audible and what's not?

 

[Takeereasy]

The size of the speaker and number of drivers will also have a big impact IMO. Those Paradigm Titans are rated as extremely inefficient (86 db) but I've heard them fill a room with fantastic sound when attached to a 35wpc panasonic receiver. That same receiver could probably only get Buckeye's Polks up to a low or moderate volume before clipping set in and they have a sensitivity of 89. My speakers are 91 db but are 6ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimal. They like a receiver that is beefier than that panasonic as well. If you want to look at some very efficient mass produced speakers companies like Klipsch or Bic acoustech have speakers with db ratings in the mid to high 90's.

 

[annunaki]

Hi,
Just a thought but whatever sensitivity speakers you choose to use should be mated with the receiver or amp you are looking at using them with. The sensitivity rating is how many watts it takes to drive a certain speaker (typically 1W at 1mv) to a certain level (or spl) so an 86bd speaker will take more power to drive efficiently than say an 89db speaker (and less so for a 92db speaker).
It's a strange formula but it takes expotentially more power to drive just a small difference in db rating speakers. So for instance it may take 50W to drive 89db speakers to 100db (sound pressure level) when it will take roughly 100W to drive 86db speakers to the same sound pressure level...
Take this into consideration if you have just a receiver or integrated amp!
Racercarp-
Audiophile from Seattle...

At 1 meter, it would take a speaker with an 86db (1w/1m) speaker 32 watts to reach 101db. For an 89db speaker (1w/1m) it would take 16 watts to reach 101db. You have the right idea. For any 3db difference in sensitivity, it would require twice the output power to acheive the same volume level (for the lower sessitivity speaker). None of this means that the lower sensitivity speaker cannot play louder though. One just needs enough amplifer to achieve it.