Speaker Distortion or Room Interaction ?

thanks to all for your responses. i would like to turn the question around if i may- if YOU have a room like mine,
and you feel your system really can reproduce the sound and the scale of the new york philharmonic, what did you have to do or buy to achieve this?
as an addendum i pulled out "TRITTICO"- prof.johnson's HDCD
of the dallas wind symphony the other day. lots of bass-drum thwacks and tympani, brass, double fortissimos, etc.
hey, my speakers didn't sound half bad on THAT recording...
no distortion, no shrieking, nada. not like the Tchaikovsky Ballet Suites on DG- a 4-D recording that i played before that-
the sound got real zingy and smeary during the loud parts. in either case, i would guess that my speakers have to be working fairly hard during some of those dynamic peaks, so while i enjoy all the sound i keep the remote close by.
NOT ME, but i've heard PLENTY of horror stories about people who crank up high-end stereos LOUD, after the dealer assured them that they could do just that with their "new toy". SO, they throw a big party, and use the volume control like the accelerator pedal on a sports car. then a "fluffing" sound starts coming out of the woofers, and/or there's no sound past the midrange. i'm talking about very large, expensive loudspeakers too. (my interest is not in party music though.) please share your system/experiences.
i mean, if, with your setup you feel at times that you're in a concert hall, i'd like to know about it. thanks!

french fries, we still don't know what spl levels that you are talking about. Live Mahler symphony can reach 105db at row 5 in a good hall. is this what you are attempting to reproduce at home and is this the level at which you are hearing the distortion. Perhaps you are trying to reach levels that are actually higher than concert hall levels due to low frequency compression (the frequency response of the speakers at higher levels is not as flat as lower levels) and pushing your system into distortion (clipping) to compensate.
Bob P.

French Fries,

I am not sure if you saw my earlier post - it may have crossed with yours earlier today.

I have ATC SCM 100 active speakers and an ATC SCM 0.1/15 Sub. My room is similar to your room except for 9 foot rather than cathedral ceilings.

I can confirm absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, that this system in my room achieves SPL levels and dynamic range similar to live rock music and easily surpass SPL's in a classical concert hall (barring real cannons for 1812).

Since I received the ATC SCM 100 actives about six months ago, this is the first time in my life that I have lost the urge to continue to turn up the volume. I admit defeat...my ears simply can't stand to go as loud as this system can (even though the sound remains clean with extremely low distortion levels, well below 1 % THD, no harshness no smearing).

If this is what you truely seek...then look no further than ATC.

There are a few other speakers used by rock recording studios that you might try, such as Meyer, but I have no direct experience to guide you. One advantage of ATC is that they are also liked by some classical sound engineers too, for example Telarc and Hans Zimmer use ATC.

Sorry if this sounds like a shameless plug for ATC (a proud owner speaking)....but I believe that nobody would dare disagree with my contention that high-end ATC speakers are well known to deliver exceptionally high and clean SPL levels with heaps of headroom and dynamic range. ( and isn't this what you are seeking?)

Shadorne -- the ATC 100 are quite large, and very expensive. They are also active so there go frenchfries' Mark Levs. OTOH they're also good spkrs IMO -- better than the present ones -- but they still won't reproduce the scale of a Mahler 8.

Gregm,

Yes I agree 100%. My comments are limited to extremely high SPL, dynamic range and low distortion...but none of this adds up to the live experience. No two speakers could ever re-produce the real thing with a large orchestra and chorus on the scale of Mahler 8 (speakers are point sources while orchestras are distributed).