Very BIG Room? Music and Home Theatre Challenge

WOW

Thanks for all the good info so far, gentlemen.

Funny, my new room is 20x25 and it is starting to feel like a cramped, nearfield set up.

I am thinking more and more that a bit of Rives type room consulting would have as much an impact on this installation than anything.

A longer and more philosophical conversation is why there should be that much difference between good home theatre and good music, but perhaps that should be another thread.

Another piece of the puzzle:

above this room will be an IDENTICAL room, which is where there new master bedroom suite will go. Although this is likely to be carved up internally with walls, closets, bathrooms etc.

Therefore, they have asked for a < $5000 40" plasma for the foot of their bed.

I have had great luck in my own bedroom with the inexpensive Pioneer HT receiver and the Infinity 750s following recommendations from some of you and might just suggest the same.

So are there any good HD plasmas WITHOUT the cheesey internal amp and speakers?

Hopefully that frees up more cash for the BIG room downstairs.

any comments on Wilsons for BIG rooms?

...thinking Watt Puppies, not Max, or WHAMM or Alexandria or whatever.....

and appreciate all the cautions about Maggies in a big room.

However, would those concerns be mitigated somewhat by sitting closer to the speakers? Or would the sound still be swallowed up?

Thanks for suggestions so far.

Please put me down for the "horns are not my cup of tea" category.

Therefore, more recommendations of dynamic speakers that could fill such a room would be greatly appreciated. Other than Magneplanars, I have only had Apogees and Martin Logans. I rarely meet a box speaker I like.

OK now this thread might go on forever....

but philosophically, I have a hard time with this home theatre sound vs music sound debate.

If a so called audiophile speaker gets washed out, or sounds wimpy, or cant articulate dialogue etc, I would say it isnt a very good speaker and we should all give it a miss?!

I do understand that chamber music and Vietnam movies present different challenges, but at the big buck, high quality level, I dont know why there should be such a great divide between home theatre sound and music.

If highly dynamic, extremely sensitive speakers sound loud or fatiguing on music, then why wouldnt they sound loud and fatiguing after 2 hours watching a movie?!

Now we could argue that dynamic, sensitive speakers including some horns lend themselves well - within a certain price range - to the wide dynamic swings of movies and also have enough bottom end oomph to reproduce explosions, or car crashes or whatever.

And perhaps my taste in movies is more Woody Allen than Arnold Schwarzenegger, but so far, I side with Unsound:

I want it to sound BETTER than the cinema.

At least the ones I have heard which certainly includes 90% of the lousy mulitplex screens. And I live in NYC. God help the people in Peoria or wherever.