Loudspeakers played LOUD

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.

All of the speakers from Talon excel at playing distortion free at ridiculously loud levels. Give 'em a listen.

Not to be a wet towel here, but I would just caution that regular exposure to sounds above about 90 dB or so can lead to irreparable hearing damage. When setting the volume "reasonable" is a better goal than "realistic." Enjoy.