What does "speaker Efficiency" mean

[Youngspanion]

Is speaker efficiency some thing important to Look for? Does it have something to do with Loudness? What 'specs' should one look for when seeking an 'efficient' cab?

[BigOldHarry]

I'm sure Bill F will chime in... but I have always read "Speaker Efficiency" to mean that an efficient speaker provides more DB (volume) per watt than an inefficient speaker.

Note: I have found, in my experience, that the greater the efficiency the poorer the tone quality. Really good sounding speakers seem to need some watts to push them. Just my experience.

[Exploiter8]

SPL, or Sound Pressure Level, is the same thing, I think, maybe, yes I'm sure, unless someone says I'm wrong, in that case, nevermind!

X8

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Even though I think You mean speaker sensitivity, as the other posters explained, speaker efficiency (as any efficiency) is the ratio between the input power and output power. With direct radiating cone speakers, it's between 0.5 and 10 % IIRC.

In the days of old, there was a thing called acoustical watt, but as the figure is very low, that got dropped pretty fast. The thermal handling of the voice coil replaced that with the aid of marketing departments who demanded big numbers.

Horn loaded enclosures are the most efficient cabs to pair an (rather) inefficient speaker with. As Bill will tell You way better than I ever could.

Regards
Sam

[JTE]

Simply how much of the power that goes into the speaker comes out as air movement. ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL (which they NEVER are), a higher efficiency means you get more volume from the same amp and playing style. In the real world, it's a LOT more tenuous to predict how the efficiency rating will relate to what you hear, and whether it makes a real difference.

Even being a bit of a gearhead for a long time, I've gotten to where the only specs to which I pay attention are size, weight, and price. EVERYTHING else is "how does it sound to MY EARS when I play MY bass through it?


John

[Jazzdogg]

IIRC, the sensitivity spec is usually measured at 1kHz; bass frequencies are far lower and require far more power to amplify to the same SPL.

You may want to read about Fletcher-Munson Equal Loudness Contours.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by Youngspanion

Is speaker efficiency some thing important to Look for?

Where electric bass cabs are concerned it's meaningless. An SPL spec without a measured SPL chart to back it up is just advertising piffel. And since 98% of the cabs on the market use similar drivers in similar cab designs the notion that there's a major difference between, say, this 4x10 and that 4x10 is fantasy.

[Youngspanion]

So Bill. Its not something that you could make a judgement on without hearing it.

How in the world can someone get what they want and need without actually trying every thing out in a band situation?

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by Youngspanion

How in the world can someone get what they want and need without actually trying every thing out in a band situation?

IME/IMHO one can't, but ain't that part of the fun ? .

Regards
Sam

[JTE]

Originally Posted by Youngspanion

How in the world can someone get what they want and need without actually trying every thing out in a band situation?

Well, you can't. That's the advantage of a thriving local music scene, including good brick 'n' mortar stores. However, the plethora of folks who only look at the initial buy-in price has made even stores that WANT to care have to revert to Wal-Mart customer service in order to survive. The store I used to manage won't let people take an amp/cab/bass to a gig any more unless the owner's known you for a long time. And the owner's not willing to stock much of anything except proven sellers any more. We used to loan stuff out for people to try at gigs or rehearsals, and we used to stock interesting but odd-ball things. We always had at least two lefty guitars (real Fender Strats and/or Teles, not the cheapo stuff) and often at least a lefty Precision. Not anymore- just no sense in tying up cash in slow moving inventory any more.

Anyway, there's only so much you can do to find what you think you might want/need. You can get some experience with who on line seems to have similar tastes as you do in sounds, and share perspectives with them. You can go hear local people playing (as long as they're not going through the PA). And you can buy stuff with the idea that you'll probably go through a lot of dogs getting to what you want.

John

[seamonkey]

Originally Posted by Youngspanion

So Bill. Its not something that you could make a judgement on without hearing it.

How in the world can someone get what they want and need without actually trying every thing out in a band situation?

A good sound company can do it. It starts by demanding that the companies they buy from provide accurate measurements. Sensitivity isn't a measurement they look at. It's the whole frequency response, and polar response (dispersion) and many other measurements - accurately represented.

They can calculate what setup and EQ needs to be done for a room. And pull of a good sound for the Bass and rest of the band for the room.

With the price of some bass cabs you'd expect accurate measurements to be had, but people who buy such cabinets don't demand it.

You'll never see bass cabinets used in FOH, except by inexperienced sound engineers.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Youngspanion

So Bill. Its not something that you could make a judgement on without hearing it.

How in the world can someone get what they want and need without actually trying every thing out in a band situation?

DIY