The Houston Audio Society members prefer a speaker with low distortion, good detail retreival, and an accurate octave-to-octave tonal balance. The amps we use, tube or solid state, usually are powerful and high efficiency (in the speakers) is not an important goal. I may visit a HAS member's house and hear his $20K system with Innersound electrostats and marvel at the clarity and resolution.

The Lone Star Bottleheads gravitate toward lower power amps, therefore high efficiency speakers are valued. The most frequently seen speakers are single driver speakers, vintage speakers, and multi driver high efficiency speakers. The Bottleheads' speakers have less detail retreival and usually have some peaks in the treble range. At a Bott meeting I may hear a diy single driver speaker with a $10 Radio Shack driver (hooked up to a 2 watt amp) and cringe at the brightness and lack of detail but marvel at the clarity and coherency of the midrange and the soundstage.

I have occasionally felt the need for psychotherapy as I move between these groups, but instead of spending my money on an expensive shrink I just buy more speakers of both types.