Best spkrs for rock: Dunlavy V-Watt/Puppy-Revel??

I wouldn't get the old Wilson Watt Puppies. The Wilson Watt Puppies 6 and 7 were there best versions. I would recommend the Dunlavy 5 speakers or the Aerial 10T. The Aerial's sound very dynamic. The midrange is very good on the Aerial's. They have an upbeat sound and the bass is awesome. The bass is tight and fast. The Dunlavy's have this amazing midrange and the bass is great. Another speaker I would recommend, is the JM Lab Mezzo Utopia's.

None of the speakers you mention will do rock better than your current NHT 3.3s. They are all very good speakers, but the areas in which they better the NHTs will not be readily revealed on typical rock recordings. You might want to consider some of the powered ATC models.

NHT 3.3 is better than a Dunleavy 5 what have you been smoking? no way no how is this statement correct. Sorry simply not factual. You actually heard Dunleavy 5 speakers? A sick Dunleavy 5 will easily trounce the 3.3. of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong. But I'm not. Nothing personal to the previous poster. The Dunleavy 5 has the correct amount of resolution needed for loud volume rock any more resolution would be too much resulting in bright, hard overetched qualities. Also takes quite a number of drivers to play loudly without failure,like the 5 has.
cannot think of a better speakers for the authors requirements.

Listen to Sean, he knows of what he speaks when it comes to this... :-)

Onhwy61, I don't have personal experience with all of the above speakers, including the 3.3's, but I must agree with Mejames when you propose that the speaker differences will be meaningless if listening to rock music. I think I know what you're driving at, and yes, there are some possible differences - in all parts of a system - that might be more meaningful or easily perceivable when reproducing naturally recorded acoustic music, but those qualities will still translate, to one degree or another, into the sonic result no matter what type of music is played, especially if well-recorded (although these differences may not confer upon studio rock an advantage that better correlates to any remembered 'absolute sound reality', instead just being matters of preference and accuracy to the source). There is also a flip-side to this issue, in that reproduction of naturally recorded acoustic music will not always stress certain aspects of a system in ways that will necessarily tell you everthing you need to know about how it will perform on rock. So for me, I always audition with natural acoustic music because I want to know the fine details of a component's performance envelope, but I also use rock as well, because that's what I listen to 75% of the time, and for a speaker especially it has to pass both tests.

I would recommend high-end JBL speakers. I live in Asia, and JBL still markets some really high-end speakers out here. However, these high-end beasts are classic JBL in sound - absolutely awesome for any type of rock, classic rock, or live music or band presence!!!

There is one pair, JBL 4344, which I saw on Audiogon for sale last week for $3,500, which I believe is still available. They retail brand new for around $11,000. I have heard "Eagles - When Hell Freezes Over" on them, and they sound absolutely incredible. (I currently own the B&W Nautilus 801 - while they are fabulous at classical music, they don't even come close to the JBL 4344 in rock music).

Another new high-end JBL is their K2S9800 series of speakers ($25,000 list price/pair) they recently launched around the world, including the U.S. Please see (www.jbl.com/home/products/series.asp?SerId=K2) for details. I have heard them out here, and they are truely amazing! So if you are truly after a high-end "rock music" speakers, I recommend you check them out....they will easily handle 3x the size of your room.....