Good speakers less efficient?

Not being a speaker designer, I have a fairly crude impression of how crossovers and drivers are used. My impression is that drivers function naturally over characteristic frequency bands, e.g., woofers only go up so far and start to drop off below a frequency inherent to their configuration and loading. Their performance over their bands is typically not flat. Designers use crossovers to boost and/or cut to smooth the speakers' frequency responses, as well as to extend performance beyond the speakers' natural bands, like coaxing a woofer to go lower. Beyond frequency response, designers also have goals for phase coherence (like Thiel), dynamic range, and low level performance, among others. This often results in unusual impedance loads and inefficient speakers. Nowadays, the availability of high powered solid state amplifiers allows the speaker designer generally to ignore such issues. The utilization of new speaker materials, like beryllium, diamond, or sandwich composites, allows the designer to achieve specific goals without as much complexity in the crossover and hopefully with less penalty in impedance and efficiency. I am hopeful other posters will have more specific responses to your question.

Accepting low efficiency allows a designer to get deeper bass in a given box size. All else being equal, most people will pick the speaker with deeper bass.

Passive equalization in crossover networks is pretty much limited to "cut" instead of "boost and cut". If the designer needs to reduce the efficiency of the tweeter and/or midrange to mate up with a low efficiency woofer, he can do some response-smoothing while he's at it.

Fairly low impedances (4 ohms nominal) will better utilize the capabilities of high quality solid state amplifiers. A 4-ohm speaker will draw twice as much power as an 8-ohm speaker from a high current solid state amp, so it will play 3 dB louder. All else being equal, most people will choose the extra free 3 dB.

Not being constrained to keep the impedance up around 8 ohms increases the range of drivers the designer can choose from, and gives him more lattitude in what he can do and how he can do it.

With all those advantages, why in the world would any designer not shoot for low efficiency and low impedance?

Diversity in philosophy abounds amongst loudspeaker designers, for the above-mentioned "all else" is seldom "equal". It's all about juggling tradeoffs. Each of the advantages cited above comes at a price. My own designs tend toward higher than average efficiencies and impedances, as I place tube amp compatibility high on my priority list - but I make trade-offs in doing so.

In my opinion, those loudspeakers that really sound good do so for two reasons: First, in combination with the rest of the system the speaker must recreate some aspect of a live performance convincingly enough to allow the listener to suspend disbelief and get lost in the music. That aspect can be timbre, impact, coherence, warmth, sense of rhythm, ambience, inner nuance, sound source localization, liveliness, whatever. Second, the speaker must avoid screwing up some aspect of the sound badly enough to destroy the illusion. Sometimes efficiency and impedance play a significant role in these characteristics for good or for ill, but most often it is other technical attributes that are the dominant factors.

Duke

It's not a "high performance attribute", nor is there a relation of performance to sensitivity. It has to do mostly with the evolving of amplifiers producing enough current to drive bigger cones and achieve lower frequencies in smaller boxes.

Tube amps, which came first, produce little current output. This meant that speakers needed drivers to be relatively light and the magnets small in order for the low current to move the cone. Lighter cones limits their size (to prevent cone deformation), which limits the low frequency response. One way to get lower frequencies out of relatively small cones is to horn load the cabinet, however; the lower the frequency the bigger the cabinet. Another limitation is the number of drivers as a crossover splits the already small current further. So by keeping the impedance and sesitivity high, a tube amp can be practical.

With transistors, amplifiers are able to generate many times the output current of tube amps. This makes it possible for larger, stiffer drivers with bigger voice coils and magnets to be installed in smaller, closed boxes producing tighter bass response. Also, lower impedances will not over-tax a SS amp they way it does a tube amp.

Since solid state amps are more prevalent, speaker designers are more free to mix and match cabinets, drivers and crossovers because, for one thing, it makes economic sense. Sometimes lower sensitivity and impedance gets them where they want to go (like the ones you mention) or sometimes it's in the other direction (e.g. von schweikert, Fried).

The efficiency and impedance of the most popular dynamic speakers solely depend on Faraday's Law i.e. on the driver itself.

The impedance of the coil rises with the freequency growth
Z=wL
For DC current the coil impedance is zero(w=0)or same may apply for freequencies close to zero.
In order to reproduce lower freequencies the coil should be quite massive to hold a large current hence the impedance of such will drop. Hence the full range speakers require powerfull amplification with good current drive.

Larger drivers can reach higher SPL with smaller current and smaller amplification hence more efficient.

Small drivers need larger amplification power to move the air hence less efficient. The advantage of the small driver full range speakers (Dynaudio,Totem) is WAF, compact soundstage and imaging.

I agree most mid to large size speakers suck most amps dry.
I just looked at the Tyler Linbrook Signature System, a WMTMW design. Ty rates it at 4 ohms/92 db. I demoed my small Jadis OR with them and had no trouble at all.
Which testifies to the super high quality of trans on the Jadis and the fact that Ty knows how to design a crossover to make this impressive and imposing speaker work fine with a 40 watt tube amp. Classical Orchestra sounded rich and beautiful sound sound stage.
Good point for a topic.
Big deal the speaker is large and full range. What sort of power requirements does it need?