Hmmmm. Sounds familiar. I've got horn speakers, array's, monitors, and the Pi's. AND I'm looking at a single driver as well. What I need is a listening room I can put everything into

IMO, the age of the people at the shows has a a lot to do with it, as you mentioned. I would have never listened to Lizz Wright or Diana Krall 10 years ago, and only the occasional classical like Vivaldi or something (Although I loved to go hear the symphony since I was in my late teens). At LSAF, the only one I've felt comfortable throwing some metal on was in Wayne's room. Probably because I'm at least an aquaintance and I know he likes some of the harder stuff that I do as well. I know others are willing too, but I feel are somewhat hesistant that either a: the music isn't recorded as well and might make their system sound lousy (even though it is really showing the limitation of the recording most times) and b: the group of people that are coming in and out of the room are older and don't want to listen to rock or Texas blues (thus driving off potential customers).

I understand about the limits of the rooms and such, but I've never asked someone to crank up the tunes for me, and in fact most rooms listen to the music WAY louder than I do at this point, unless I just happen to be feeling froggy that day. So the volume levels shouldn't be a factor in my case. I like to be able to talk to the person beside me without raising my voice too much or to read without being distracted. And if I sit right in front of a speaker and the music coming out of that individual speaker sounds lousy, it is lousy FOR ME.

I spent 6 years practicing with a 5 piece rock band in a little 15'x15' room 3 nights a week for 3-4hours a night, playing at insanely high levels--you could see the drywall move at times :). At the time I loved "feeling" the music, but now it just doesn't interest me unless I feel the piece of music deserves it or I'm playing with other musicians. For instance: the kick drum on the opening of Metallica's "One" can make you empty your bladder if played at live volumes.