Thanks for your thoughts. When Barry Wilis at Stereophile reviewed my speakers he described what I am myself experiencing this way: "[In the 12 by 14 room] the electronics were impeccable ... but [the speakers] really came to life only at music levels at which they overwhelmed the room." It's not just a bass issue -- and it's not that the speakers under-perform at lower volume, it's just that the magic in these speakers really seems to require the extra watts to materialize.
Room Size and Loudness
I'm at the room tuning stage with my addiction and one of the various room problems I want to address is a loudness issue which plays out this way: To really get the best out of my speakers I need to run them at a level that makes them too loud for my room -- every once-in-a-while I can handle a Who concert, but I don't want to do it every time I fire up the system. I knew this could be a problem for me when I picked up the speakers I'm using (in April) but I like the speakers and the way they fit in with my system. Can I use acoustic treatments to solve this problem (I'm sure that might raise other problems -- but I need to know the options before I can identify points of compromise). For example, would lining a wall(s) with absorption foam, etc. be a solution? Any thoughts/comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!