speakers for classical music

Actually, the Dvorak 9th with Bernstein is a pretty interesting recording. . . in some cases, it can soun. . . even sort of swampy. . . yet it can also highlight the capability of a component to dig into the information and bring music and venue into the reproduction. . . remember my recent observations on Ref 3 and Capri with this particular track?

105dB continuous at the listening seat is "crazy loud".

I agree and there are few non horn speaker designs that can achieve this cleanly at two or more meters. I would not recommend listening at these levels and agree that 95 db spl is plenty loud already. Of course if the speaker can handle it then you have plenty of headroom for those occasional highly dynamic drum recordings.

I need to look for a new Rite of Spring, Guido. Sady my only one on hand is early Telarc by virtue of it being vinyl, it said encapsulates the worst of digititus for all eternity. (I think it was Atlanta in the late 1970s, not the greatest). No rescue by upsampling is possible given its conversion to analog. Strange irony if you ask me.

MTT's Mahler has me thinking that I should look further into his work for modern, well recorded options with high performance potential.

Dave

Also how is the power consumption for these units - i.e. can you run them off the same 15 amp circuit w/o any problem.

Power consumption is low - no more than four amps for the pair - Since the speaker and amp are matched they can design them with momentary gain reduction so you don't get crazy things happening if you overdrive them (like a fuse tripping).

Genelec, PMC, and ATC active three ways all play loud with tremendous dynamics/punchy sound and all have a following. It is really a personal thing so I could not guess which you will prefer - for example PMC has more bass whilst ATC is more forward in the mids - take your pick. At this level of investment a trip is definitely worthwhile to hear at least two of the three....after all you may not even like the forward punchy sound of these actives (fatiguing some would call it) ...although I grant you that Genelec 8040 appears to have garnered your interest and they are fairly neutral - but there is a huge step up from these small monitors to a bigger three way active - if you have not heard it then play Sheffield Labs drum track loudly at your first chance of a demo and you will surely be gobsmacked.

Hi Dave, if there were a relatively recent -- or well remastered -- Boulez performance, that may be the ticket to the Rite Of Spring. . . just stay away from Igor Stravinsky's very own performance,or Monteaux.