Loudspeakers played LOUD

to Nil. Maybe but it depends on what you mean by loud. I use custom modified Melos 400 watt Monoblocks driving my Dunlavy V's in about an 8000 cubic foot room. At 103 average dbSPL in the room the average measured power draw is around 20 watts (Rite of Spring). The 400 watt amps give me a solid 12 db of headroom and their peak capabilities gives me almost 20db. Driving the V's at maximum rated music power of 250 watts should give you a volume of around 114dbSPL. At these levels you are probably listening to Metal and probably only neet 6 db of headroom. The caveat: If you really listen at those volumes you run a serious risk of frying the tweater if your amp clips, an additional amp would make that less likely. You would get an additional 3 db of headroom for sure and maybe more depending on the amps clipping characteristics. But at 114 dbSPL for an hour or two a day your hearing will be damaged enough so that you might be better off trading in the V's for some Klipsch horns.

P1s1, thx for your input. You addressed the loudness point of perspective, which makes sense, rather not to have another CA-400, since in my room , at near field listening I rarely listened to beyond 100 db(clean sounding at that), where sound stage depth and imaging suffers. Although some of the demage is caused , no doubt, by my average size L -shaped room,adding Comfortable head room by going monoblocks and tripling of maxpower, is there any gain to be had in soundstage and imaging ? Sorry snook2 to use your forum to solve my problem. This is the last question, I promise.

There can be possible gains in clarity from monoblocks if the first 20% of the amps output comes from true class A bias. This is the case with the Melos. Since you have an L shaped room, I think you would get more improvement from careful room treatment. If your primary source is digital I strongly recommend you try a Tact or Sigtech. I own a Sigtech and use minimal ASC room treatment. The improvement in sound stage and imaging is astonishing. Look on the digital forums, there has been a lot of recent discussions. If you want I can post the references.

Back to the original question (but don't let me change the current subject if you choose to continue), I would respectfully suggest the Revel Salons. I had the chance to listen to Dunlavy SCIVa (albeit not the Vs) in one room, then the Revel Studios in another (Adelphi in Singapore). My personal preference was the Studios. Then had the chance to hear the Salons, with a few people in the room that chose to increase the volume to my limit. The Salons were simply impressive. Hard to tell in the course of an hour what the long term impression would be, but short term was stunning.

I spent a few hours comparing the Salons directly to the SC-V. They are a very viable alternative but with different trade-offs. If you primarily listen to rock pop etcI think that most listeners would prefer the Salons. For classical or Jazz I think the Dunlavy V's are better. The Salons have a zippyness and a slight hard edge that I found grating on loud classical music.