The 'higher end' antennas consume more power per transmission cycle and they cycle faster, allowing for a faster transmission rate. Alternatively, having multiple antennas means you can have multiple data streams transmitting at once. Assuming my understanding of how they work is correct, having two Comm 16s gives you the same transmission rate as a single Comm 88-88, while consuming half the power. Obviously, the parts aren't really balanced at this point. As far as science loss goes, there is no difference. Fortunately science degrades at a zero-sum rate, even though transmitting the data causes you to only get a fraction of the science results, the value of the next time you run the experiment only degrades by that same fraction of normal. In the end, the only thing you lose by transmitting it is the time and electricity it takes to transmit the results multiple times.