On the 1500 driving M5s, I am seriously concerned about cranking any more than I have because the M5s might come unglued. Recall my M5 set-up is 2-channel only. That HP woofer, as amazing as it is, might vaporize if I pump more into it. I will say this: Renee Olstead's Hit The Road Jack on the M5s is not shutting down the 1500 but it does shut down the 1000. By that time, the HP woofer is working too hard and could use a sub. My ears wouldn't be able to take that too long either. Now with a sub, the 1000/M5 combo could certainly go further. I haven't tried that yet.

Bman, you should be very happy with the 1000/M5 combo. I very much doubt you need more SPL but if you did, you'd also need more speaker than the M5.

I've come to a rapid conclusion with my living room 2-channel system. My mid-grade audiophile Pioneer is very capable of reaching the SPL I need. Now, if I wanted to open the windows and get the neighborhood rocking, I'd have to use a sub with the M5/1000 combo. Perhaps the M5/sub combo can take even more amp than the 1000 but I don't know that at this point.

One thought I had would be the ADA mated to a Chromecast Audio. Those two alone may be enough for some people. No bass, treble or balance controls but maybe those aren't needed for certain applications.

As for the M100s, I ran them 2-channel with the 1000 and shut it down quite easily long before the Onk's pre-amp was at max. It was the bass peaks on Renee's song that shut the 1000 down. The 1500 was a completely different story. I could not shut it down in 2-channel with Renee's song. I put my ear muffs on and drove the M100s to 113dB peaks at 13 feet away. The peak may of course have been higher because my SPL meter's sampling rate is quite limited. At that point my Onk was cranked and I'm pretty darned sure it couldn't reproduce the peaks. I also suspect I may have been reaching the M100's compression limits.

I consider this "test" very extreme. I didn't measure the voltage at the speaker terminals but I'd easily bet peaks over 2000W. The M100 HP driver dust caps got 14 degrees C above ambient (my room was 16 degrees and the dustcaps got up to 30C). This means the voice coils were even hotter. The 1500 was warm during this test and the electronics started to smell from the heat. Recall this is all 2-channel. With the 800 in the mix, this is likely to change but I haven't tried that yet.

BTW, it appears the ADAs come with a spare fuse. I haven't had to use it but it's a good touch. And thank you again Andrew for taming that blue LED.

Movie and more critical listening is up next. I'm curious to see what difference the ADA makes, if any, when it comes to microdynamics, imaging and soundstage.