Seeking recommendations for small, high-efficiency bookshelf speaker plans or kits.

Why limit yourself to 2.5W amp? The world is a huge space of speaker designs when you allow yourself to use something more than a SET fleawatt amp.

Having set yourself to 2.5W amp power limit then very few small full range drivers that measure smoothly and are cost effective can touch the Faital Pro 3FE22-8 or 3FE25-8 at 91dB sensitivity. They are even available in 16ohms tube amp lovers. Or use two 16ohm in parallel for higher sensitivity.

Just one 8ohm in a 0.40x Karlsonator is a proven great sounding speaker and the box is about the size you require.

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/mini-karlsonator-0-53x-with-dual-tc9fds.239338/

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Why limit yourself to 2.5W amp? The world is a huge space of speaker designs when you allow yourself to use something more than a SET fleawatt amp.

Having set yourself to 2.5W amp power limit then very few small full range drivers that measure smoothly and are cost effective can touch the Faital Pro 3FE22-8 or 3FE25-8 at 91dB sensitivity. They are even available in 16ohms tube amp lovers. Or use two 16ohm in parallel for higher sensitivity.

Just one 8ohm in a 0.40x Karlsonator is a proven great sounding speaker and the box is about the size you require.

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/mini-karlsonator-0-53x-with-dual-tc9fds.239338/

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Thanks for sharing these plans! I already ordered a pair of Mark Audio CHN-50 drivers, but now I'm thinking I should try them out in these very interesting Karlsonator boxes, if they're under 10". The design is really interesting!

I don't feel like I'm "limiting" myself to a 2.5 watt amp... I just happen to have one that I want to use. I have lots of amp+speaker combos in lots of rooms of my house, but nothing quite like this bedroom build I'm working on now. Variety is the spice of life, after all! I had bought the parts to make a Pete Millett Jonokuchi amp, and they've been sitting around for more than a year. I'll be putting that together to use with this system. And the only physical destination in the bedroom which can accommodate the amp and speakers is a wall-mounted bookshelf of fixed dimension, hence the 10" tall speaker limit. So that makes for some interesting creative constraints on this build, which I find actually makes it a fun challenge! If I want fuller sound, I can just go to a different room.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing the Karlsonator designs. I'll definitely be looking into those more closely.