Is the most efficient speaker the best speaker?

Took me a split second to recognize that asinine alliterates with acurus.

Grannyring,
No ono`s denies that very good sounding inefficient speakers exist(certainly not me) just as there are very good high efficiency speakers. The mass market/mainstream production of early transistor amps was a major impetus for increasing the number of inefficient speaker being made. We both agreed in earlier post that there`re multiple routes of reaching one`s sonic fulfillment. You`re happy with 600watt amps driving the Sound Labs, I`m happy with 8 watts driving Coincidents. It`s a big boat with plenty of room for us all.

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?

More like stereo killed off hi eff. Tossing in the new air suspension designs increasing power availability it wasn't sound quality but cost and size that did the big horns in. 1st stereo broad casts where 1 channel AM 1 FM those early adopters bought 2 systems to enjoy stereo. Homes where smaller then and housing 2 large horns became a problem for many. Like those who tossed there stereos for new HT in a box did they step up in music quality or down? Did those who moved to MP3 selling off there cds. Or those who sold off lp collections to move to digital. To me tech isn't necessarily about improving quality.

Speaker manufacturing has evolved. Technology has improved in the form of materials, software and the equipment that drivers are made from. All along, manufactures have done their best to produce a quality product. The solid state amp came to be commercially produced in the late 1950's is not what developed speaker technology. People wanting to build the best did. In the 1960's, raw parts manufacturers had a hard time maintaining 20% accuracy from part to part, in the 1970's we saw a huge improvement to more like 10%, today parts can be produced at under 5% deviations off manufacturing lines and better on hand made items. Magnet materials have improved, voice coil formers have improved, tighter tolerances for voice coil gaps have improved, flux has improved, linearity and excursion limits have improved, better materials for cones, horns and diaphrams. There have been changed in mylar materials in planers, there have been improvements in electrostatics, there has been improvements in damping on all levels... Speakers have evolved as technology has improved. The formula's for highly efficient speakers are the same today as they were in 1960, its just that today, we have much better tools and technology and materials to produce a more accurate product. That doesn't mean, nothing of old is good, accurate or even great, it just means that today, we can do it more consistantly.