Big, big room -- which 10-20k speakers?

This is a second recommendation for the Classic Audio Loudspeaker. You will want the efficiency!

If that is outside of your budget the Dreammaker by Audiokinesis is another possibility- it is relatively efficient too. The other speakers in your list will need about 4X more amplifier power at the very least.

The Classic speakers don't have the resolution.

This is a load of bull. The Classic Audio keeps up with any of them. Its beryllium midrange field-coil driver is very fast, relaxed and revealing. The speaker uses Mundorf caps in the crossover with 6db slopes.

You need to do the math. You have a big room, and speakers with moderate efficiency (89-93 db) will not fit the bill with any integrated I know of, not if you want to fill the room with anything that sounds like real music. So if the speaker has less than 96 db I would strike it from the list, unless you feel like getting a 500 watt amplifier to drive them, because that is what you are going to need with speakers of lower efficiency.

For example, if you have a speaker of 91 db and a 500-watt amp, you will be able to play at exactly the same levels with a 125-watt amp if the speaker is 97 db. The reason is because our ears work on a logarithmic scale rather than a linear scale. So to get 3 db increase in volume requires double the amplifier power. 3 db is not a lot! 10 db sounds like it is twice as loud, but that takes 10X more power.

If you were using a smaller room this would be easy. But the advantage of a large room is that the virtual size of the musicians becomes life-like in the sound field- something you can't do in a small room. So you need a speaker with the bandwidth, resolution and efficiency. Most decent speakers have two of those three attributes. The reason I am an advocate of the Classic Audio Loudspeaker is that it has all three. So does the Audiokinesis Dreammaker, although it is slightly less efficient, it is still more efficient than most speakers mentioned so far.

The problem you are going to run into with speakers of lower efficiency is that by the time you get the life-like levels, you are going to be pushing the speaker pretty hard and its going to do some compression. Plus you can count the number of musical natural sounding amps that make 500 watts or more on one hand with fingers left over, price no object. That is why when you get into situations like this there is the expression 'gold-plated decibels'.

Go with a more efficient speaker and this will get a lot easier!

Almarg makes good sense as usual :)

The larger Tannoys are another good possibility.

I think by this time we are seeing what some of the issues are with filling a large room. Nearly everyone who mentions a speaker with lower efficiencies is also recommending a subwoofer and quite often some very powerful amplifiers.

The problem with this is always blend, and system complexity rarely contributes to musicality.

This is why I recommended the Classic Audio Loudspeaker. Fist off, you won't need a sub. The T3 has dual 15" woofers, one down-firing and the other forward firing. With 98 db efficiency, you will be able to operate a tube amp with only 60 watts and do nicely filling the space.

The problem here is that you can count the number of 500+ watt amps on one hand (with fingers left over) that sound like anything close to real music!

So if you have a speaker of higher efficiency you have a much wider range of amplifiers available!

A few years ago we set up a system at RMAF, in the biggest room (A ballroom) available at the show. I think the room was a good 120 feet long, and at least 60 feet wide. We had no trouble filling it with power to spare using a set of Classic Audio Loudspeakers and a set of Atma-Sphere MA-1s. For the most part the amps were loafing. That is how you want the system to work. If you are pushing it hard all the time there is no way its also going to be sounding its best.

Rtilden, Thanks for the comments.

We have done 105 quite comfortably at shows (when things were working) and not been able to manage 95 db (when they weren't).

Even though I rarely play the system that loud, I can comfortably play 115 db at home without the system getting overbearing! I did work on the front end to reduce vibration in the turntable, CDP and preamp to that end. This means that at normal levels the system is utterly without strain!

Getting a relaxed sound is the key. Especially if its relaxed at high volumes. IMO/IME a system should never sound loud. You should be surprised that you have to yell for someone sitting next to you to hear you. If OTOH the system sounds loud and shouty when you turn it up there is a problem somewhere- something that is generating odd-ordered harmonics (microphonics, resonance, cone breakups, amp clipping etc.).

Mapman quoted something on a different thread which I am paraphrasing- 'It is THE luxury of high end audio to listen at high volumes without stress'. That's it in a nutshell and is why efficiency is indicated in this situation.

Ngjockey, I'm pretty sure you can get into a set of Classic Audio T3s, without the field coil drivers, for under 20K/pr. I thought they were about $16K.