Big, big room -- which 10-20k speakers?

Greetings from the MinneApple from an old ALTEC PRO rep!

My opinion is commercial tri-amped line arrays, designed for the room by an experienced sound contractor. You will be unhappy with "home" speakers at anything above background levels. Consider that all distortion products increase exponentially with cone excursion, while gain compression becomes a major obstacle when individual drivers are working past 10% of their rated power.

I use line arrays of common Klipsch speakers, floor to ceiling, wired in parallel for mutual damping, driven by a trusty old Adcom GFA-555 that loves 2.4 ohm loads. Even at 115 dB @ 10 feet, nothing is approaching clipping except your ears. To keep up the low end I use 6 powered subs in 4 locations to eliminate standing waves.

Get some bids from local sound contractors, study the Lansing Heritage website, and start with these resources from Chris Moon at HigherFi.com:

http://www.higherfi.com/amppower/index.html

http://www.higherfi.com/speaker_position.htm

Cheers and Happy Listening!

a pair of altec nineteens would perform wonderfully in that large open space

a pair of altec nineteens would perform wonderfully in that large open space

While I in no way consider myself in the same class of expertise as some of the respondents, I would suggest a look at Legacy Audio. Legacy is not as exotic as most of the suggestions here; But I heard the newest version of the Whispers at CES 2 years ago. The only speaker I liked better was the Anat Studio II, which is exponentially more expensive. I have a similar size room. I use two Legacy Focus and the sound really is unbelievable. I have a bit more power available in my amp which may help; But the New Whispers come with built in dual 500 watt Amps powering four 15 inch drivers each side. The extra power and piston area will surely go along way toward filling a large room. They are also very efficient. Have fun designing!
http://www.legacyaudio.com/products/view/whisper-xd/

There are so many choices to make, but only you know the kind of sound you are looking for. My room is essentially 20 X 30 X 25 high. My main speakers Coincident Pure Reference I bought used, two years old. My mono amps are PassLabs XA100.5's. They each drive 100 watts in pure class 'A' sound. Coincident speakers can be driven by as little as 25 watts or 500 watts, your choice. Right now I can drive well over 106 SPL at 10 feet. In my own humble opinion it is more about the sound you want and enjoy than an absolute number of power watts. All speakers are different at different levels of sound. Take time! By the way I also have two SVS Ultra13 subs that are blended in and helps create my own masterpiece. I had a friend down from Michigan to spend a few hours listening. He was astounded! And I had sold him previously, my Legacy Focus, which he loves.
Coincident speakers are built to hold an average 6 to 8 ohms across the frequency band to make selecting a power amp easier. These large speakers, weigh over 200 pounds and are reasonably priced used at around 10K versus 22K new.
The other choice to consider would be the BE-20 at roughly the same price. The sound is a little fuller. Usher BE-20 is their top of the line.
Either way you can't go wrong.
Choices choices nothing but choices.
Good luck and happy hunting!
Rich