Very BIG Room? Music and Home Theatre Challenge

"...I have no desire to replicate what I hear in movie theaters. I certainly hope we can do better than that." (Unsound).

I beg to dissagree with Unsound, but you can't really!!!...especially for movie soundtracks. The Things a good horn setup(especially quality active stuff) can do are perfect for movies in a large venue! They project pressence(what most audiophile speakers can't do) in to a space that's immediate and grabbing! You can easily hear dialog and ever detail in a good setup, and they are dynamic as hell!!!!...again, something you can't get on home gear for the most part, especially audiophile dainty!
I've sold Wilson's, Thiel, Dunlavy, B&W, Meridian, SFaber, Logan's, Maggies, you name it. They can't compete with horns for an all out dynamic assault. And that's the majority of the passion, the thrill, excitement and heart of a good Movie system, sorry. Still, to each his own.
Just don't expect anyone but you to be impressed with your system for movies if you use a lot of these speakers...it's a big yawn for most.
At the very least, on high end gear, you need to boost the efficiency and coherence/focus of the system usually, to get the dynamics and solidity of immage out! Otherwise, it's airy and delicate alright, which is really drown out when the volume goes up, and the dynamics overwhelm the audiophile speakers. Basically, they have serious dynamic limits, and are dynamically un-transparant. That's the truth...ok if you listen at a flee's volume level, and listen to small scale music most often.
Also, a well designed horn system on the right gear is a well balanced thing.
That said, the movie theater has to be setup properly and calibrated correctly, and many aren't! It's easy to over crank the bass, have blown woofers unrepaired in the theater not working, improperly EQ'd, etc in these theaters, just like any home. Management varries. However, in a good THX certified cinema, it's very good!
Also, tubes work very good often with tube gear! My Klipsch's (I've got Infinity's too) are superb on a Jolida! They're 100db effecient, and very well balanced with the tubes...many should try.

Well, I did get rid of my Klipsch Heresey's to get Cornwalls. However, I got rid of the Cornwalls to buy Coincident Conquests. These are enough for a huge room but find some Victorys or even milleniums and you will be set. Coincident are almost as efficient as Klipsch yet no horns! The sound isn't anything like klipsch. These will set you back a few more bucks though.

I still say he's better off with good active-woofered higher end speakers like MTS prelude Infinities. This will tremendously help you overall, as you wouldn't have problems integrating your woofers and mains...thus no separate subwoofers.
I know, I know,...sounds like your loooking for more "essoteric" speakers, even more obscure findings from the audiophile mix.
If that's the case, I'd seriously look at Wilson Cubs! These are fast and higher sensitivity desings, and are used in a number of dubbing studio and recording houses. Very high end sound, and stellar for movies.
Again, I'd tend to shy away from some of the other speakers you mentioned, serving double dubty for music/HT in your large venue, wanting higher end aspirations.
But you know, Martin logans might be just what you want. Who's to say. Also, the Logans will sound better with limited acoustical treatment as well, as they cancel out off axis. Then however your off axis seating, and listening around the room won't be good for music however. You've got to sit right in front of Logans, just like Maggies!
Another more expensive propossition in high end active systems that might work for ya, are ATC actives.
Na, I'd still look at Wilson Cubs first.
Good luck either way. Maybe a good saleman can close the deal for ya...make you take something home! (lol)
Otherwise, you're gunna have to just guess/hope, and find out what works

OK now this thread might go on forever....

but philosophically, I have a hard time with this home theatre sound vs music sound debate.

If a so called audiophile speaker gets washed out, or sounds wimpy, or cant articulate dialogue etc, I would say it isnt a very good speaker and we should all give it a miss?!

I do understand that chamber music and Vietnam movies present different challenges, but at the big buck, high quality level, I dont know why there should be such a great divide between home theatre sound and music.

If highly dynamic, extremely sensitive speakers sound loud or fatiguing on music, then why wouldnt they sound loud and fatiguing after 2 hours watching a movie?!

Now we could argue that dynamic, sensitive speakers including some horns lend themselves well - within a certain price range - to the wide dynamic swings of movies and also have enough bottom end oomph to reproduce explosions, or car crashes or whatever.

And perhaps my taste in movies is more Woody Allen than Arnold Schwarzenegger, but so far, I side with Unsound:

I want it to sound BETTER than the cinema.

At least the ones I have heard which certainly includes 90% of the lousy mulitplex screens. And I live in NYC. God help the people in Peoria or wherever.

Lol...Cwlondon, it sounds like you'll not end up with more dedicated "HT speakers" anytime soon, ey?!!
You know, having sold "quality high end audiophile" speakers over the years, I would say the statement "a good speaker is a good speaker" is about as missleading as it gets really. What a good speaker is, is really different to different people. There are many so called "high end" designs that I should really be classified as "limited application designs" if you ask me. But then again, it stands to reason why many people "in the know" in this biz, consider, if not implement, 2 separate systems for movies and music! They mostly fall in love with something about a particular speaker they use for their fav music(again, probabably stuff like Jazz at the Pawn Shop, Dianna Krall, and similar tempo stuff), and they stay there. These are mostly very pretty, clear, detailed, open, airy, laid back sounding speakers, that do many many things right!...don't get me wrong. In these areas, these speaker "get things right" IMO. ON THE OTHER HAND, when it comes to highly dynamic stuff (often music you don't hear many audiophiles playing much, if any of..except perhaps Correy Greenberg), these speakers aren't so good, and infact fall flat on their faces! They are the antithesis often of what is dynamic, powerful, and anything but flat and squashed out, even at modest levels. In short, the speakers offer limited control over the drivers, inneficient design, low sensitivity, too laid back of a sound in reality, etc! Basically, they lack real dynamic trasparancy to be truely more accurate in this respect! If you think not, just take most any high end audiophile design out there, play some Metcalica, any Techno genre, some hip hop, any heavy drummed up new world, and definitely some overly demanding DD/DTS material through the speakers, and you'll know what I mean...very lackluster mostly.
On the other hand most of the pro audio offerings will stomp the living daylights out of the audiophile kit, even at low volume levels dynamically, and in terms of pressence.
Laidback audiophile speakers make you lean into the sound, and are not so solid and distinct. They're trade-offs here, for certain.
So what speakers do the "balancing/cross-over act" well, and do justice for all? They are rare breads IME. And you should wisely consider if you're trying to "get it all".
But make no mistake, if you're stuck thinking you like the sound from whatever music you heard through some audiophile liking, just remember you're not getting the whole picture.
As for horn speakers, a good horn system can indeed be setup and balanced well with proper gear and system integration. Sounding honkey I guess is all personal. I've owned wonderful sounding (again, depending) Thiels, Sonus Faber, B&W, Infinity, NHT, Merlin, and other speakers over the years, and they all did certain things well. That said, I've rarely had an occasion to call movie theater speaker systems fatiguing personally! Mostly because they're balanced. If anything, a BRIGHT speaker is fatiguing, when the trebble runs too hot. Other than that, maybe the manager has the system turned up way too high, or at THX levels...yes, those guy's at THX are insane! It's too loud, yes.
But, to each his own. I simply find most of what you'll find in the high end houses, marketed as audiophile high end stuff, as really really difficult to get sounding addequately involving and exciting, not to mention effective at reproducing movie soundtracks with any degree of accuracy (from how they were mixed to sound), pressence (exciting), or effectiveness!
Just think how it would sound poping some Maggies up in a giant movie cineplex, and trying to play LOTR's through em! If you can immagine, it would sucketh...IMO of course.
The same will hold true in your large space, trust me.
However, I can understand someone's bad experience with horns. In that case, I would still suggest higher efficiency, more focused, multi-driver arrayed speaker designs, that will focus the sound, maximize dynamics/impact/speed, limit distortion (if not cancel it out completely), and have the pressence and involvement movie mixes were designed to give....not flatten out, obscure dialoge, and sound too polite and laid back. Again, not what movies were mixed through, or designed to play back on. A good speaker is not a "good speaker" here to generalize, I'm sorry. That just doesn't play for quality home theater.
My pick for you to consider, is multiple high end driver Infinity MTS's with 850w/12" powered subs, adding multiple larger subs to the system as well. Another is Wilson Cub's, and matching surrounds around the room, with several, maybe Paradigm Servo 15 subs driving the room. Older Dunlavy SCV's work, with some SCIAV's flanking the room are good candidates on the higher end, but also do movies well (see "widescreen reviews" master reference system).
NHT VT3's on a smaller budget, and matching VS3(?) surrounds is good for the money, and more audiophile clear, if not quite as much resolve as better.
Or MAYBE some of the multi driver Dynaudio stuff is worth a look, with good amplification...but that would be lower on my list for the money...
Anyway, using single woofer/mid and single tweeter designs, ribbon speakers, and similar is not how to do HT, especially on a large room scale! I think you'll lose here.
Anyway, good luck, as there's not really much in the high end that's super super for movies for your application in a large room.
In fact you can pretty much swich out everything in the high end relm, and get the same results for your situation. In that case, I'd get as lest expensive as possible. Otherwise, simply know you're going to have to seriously sacrifice your effective movie sound experience for your musical taste/prefference, and what you've got your mind set on. You mostly won't have it all that way.
Again, hope it turns out well for you however