I watched the Batman Begins Blu ray with my Brother in law the other day and we then watched the promo for the new batman movie. I have found that when you turn up the volume to theater levels these speakers really shine. The promo gave me chills. The music is so good. I was amazed at how open and clean the sound was and how it completely enveloped me. I know that when you take two speakers and slightly turn up one louder than the other people normally would choose the louder one, but this was totally different. I noticed as I turned it up they went from sounding like it was coming from a speaker then WHAMO it opened up and I was surrounded by the orchestra, if I would have closed my eyes there was no way to tell where it was coming from. I have always read about people saying these speakers want more power and now I see. Makes me wish my house was larger so I could see what these puppies can really do! Anyway, way back in 2005 when I bought mine I remember being scared thinking, "are speakers worth this much money?" Undeniably YES!!!! After we watched the movie I turned and looked at my brother in law and said "Now do you know why I get so ticked off at the movie theater?" He answer was a very emphatic YES! Now that I am about to complete my theater with a projector I might just wait until all the movies I want to see come out on blu ray and I can enjoy them in peace. Well, I guess that is enough of a rant for one day.

What are you using to drive your speakers? I've had the same experience as you except with music. Had some people over and we were having a few "adult" beverages. After a while some wanted the music louder and then there's always someone that likes a particular song and when it starts they yell "turn it up" My room isnt' real large and when I was at about -15 (on my Denon 3808, M60s and MVP100 fronts) people started to stop and stare, they couldn't believe it could be that loud and still sound that clear. When I bumped it up to -10 jaws dropped because even at the level every sound coming out was clearly defined and crystal clear. Like you I found that as you "put" the power to the speakers it gets better and better.

As an afterthought, I read somewhere, may have been on this forum that some people get a separate amp and use that to drive the large fronts, in my case M60s, and use the receiver to drive the center and surrounds. They say that since the amp is designed to do one thing, output music to speakers that it sounds much better than the music coming from the receiver. They say that because all the "specs" are better on the amp that even at low levels the sound it much more complete. I may have asked a "version" of this question on this forum but I don't really remember so if I have and someone responded to it please forgive me being redundant. Sometimes I post the same question on different forums and get completely different types of responses

How do you connect up a 2-channel amp to power the M-60 mains? I have an Onkyo 805 running everything now, but have an Adcom 100watt 2-channel amp that I would like to try this with.

You hook the amp up to the Onkyo's preamp connections with standard RCA cables.

Bobby, those who say that about separate amplifiers are ignoring the facts. If the amplifier in a receiver can drive the speakers with flat frequency response and inaudibly low noise and distortion, as is the case in the vast majority of setups, that's all that can possibly be accomplished. If a separate amplifier would happen to have slightly better measurable numbers, that would be meaningless in actual listening if the amplifier in the receiver is already supplying transparent amplification.

I have an onkyo 805. It was the music in the new batman trailer that was completely awesome for me. My wife's brother was lovin it. The worst thing about it is my wife who is due in a few weeks, when I turn up the volume the baby goes crazy! and she is upstairs. I spent a forturne trying to soundproof this basement room and it helps, but it doesn't seal out sound upstairs. I have found that bass frequencies make it through. You can't hear or barely can hear mids. So it really isn't loud upstairs it is just the bass making its way through. Obviously, I'll be using headphones in a few weeks IF I even have time with since I will have a newborn on my hands.

LFE is the hardest thing to stop. Best you could do would be to build another room inside the present room and fully insulate the new room as well, or in your case one or two more ceilings Congrats on the new addition to the family, babies sleep alot so you should have more spare time on your hands with the newborn, once he/she starts crawling and walking, you can kiss the extra time good bye.