Playing "loud enough" and "sounding good" while doing it are two different things. Most good sized speakers hit a brick wall at somewhere around 105 - 108 dB's at an appr 8' - 10' listening distance. Momentary peaks may be higher, but if you try to sustain "rock concert levels" or "long duration crescendo's", most speakers will fall on their face. Smaller, less efficient speakers may not even come close to the aforementioned figures.
Rsbeck: I think that the speakers would give out LONG before anyone's ears begin to bleed. Even highly efficient horn loaded speakers like K-Horns and La Scala's can't do that. Not even sitting one meter from the speakers. That's because Klipsch rates even their "Pro" versions of these speakers as having a max output of 128 dB's @ 1 meter. Sure, they can cause permanent hearing loss, but bleeding out of your ears, no way. Especially not a far less efficient speaker like B&W's at a typical listening distance. Sean
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