All great points, JB and Nick. I guess what I'm saying is that I have no pressing desire to "go there," not for a movie, anyway. I'm using 1/2 the total power of JB. I sit about 7 feet from the center, about 9+ feet from the mains (M60/4 QS8/ep500).
For movies, 14-17 does just fine. I listen to most pop/rock music at about 14-16 (2-channel 95% of the time), depending on the recording. It's not that I hear detectable distortion at higher levels, I guess I don't need more to rock my plimsole--- in the house. It just gets assaultive past that point, because we're not talking "peaks," but rather whole tracks at full throttle levels all the way through. It'll never be a rock show, so I'm not really trying to recreate it. Though I DO wish that the sound quality and gain of some classical recordings sounded like the orchestral parts do on blu ray.
Surround is awesome for movies, and merely OK to me for a concert video. SACD is against my R & R philosphy (belief system?). R & R live is a plain ol' 180 degree, full-frontal attack. Timbre and room acoustics don't have much to do with most places I would see live R & R, large or small, certainly not in a club-sized venue. I would love surround for orchestral music or jazz, but I almost never listen to either, because they're too soothing and all the pianissimo parts take too long. I'd rather listen to a ballet than sit through an opera.
By the early 70's, decorum and contemporary music parted ways for good and I didn't let that train leave without me.
It's the same feeling I get when I've got ye olde Snells blasting away in my shop. If I drop something near them and bend down really close to the speaker to pick it up, I almost get nauseous. That's because I'm almost always at about 95 db @ about 6 feet.
I guess there's another factor at play. When I had a Hammond and a Fender Rhodes and an ARP, I could tolerate any volume, as long as those brilliant sounds (obnoxious atrocities) were being gifted to the world (committed) by me. It's amazing how loud you can bear things when the one making the noisefest is one's self. It's the only thing that Blue Cheer got right!
