You can definitely overdrive a room. Unfortunately it's not a simple answer or magic bullet that will tell you when and how. Taking relatively advanced measurements and looking at decay times will show you what happens, but usually it's caused by a few frequencies that are ringing or loading and not decaying properly. What those frequencies are depend on the room, speaker placement, listener location, acoustics, etc. In general this is a very common and can be difficult problem in smaller rooms, which from a design point of view means that to overcome the problem in small rooms usually means shorter RT times.
rooms and sound levels
Any of you folks know whether a room has a specific sound level that, if gone over will cause a decrease in the clarity of sound? I find that my system seems to blare over a specified level depending on the cd played. Anyone write an article about this subject? I'm building bass traps at the moment, but the blare seems to be noticable in the mid and trebble, which is why I pose the question. It sounds clear below a certain level with no hint of distortion. Would a diffuser be of value? Has anyone had experience/benefit from the monster surge protector/ conditioner, which retails at about $300. The small 8 or 10 plug wonders?