James,
Yes, it's all about tradeoffs. I'd love to find someone locally that has a pair of 281's so I could compare them to my AV-1's and eventually to the AV-1+'s sitting in their shipping box.
BTW, I do remember someone saying that they felt the 281's lacking somewhat in midrange...
James,
Yes, I know I'd not get anywhere near 103dB's with the subs off. Also, keep in mind that my room is basically my entire 1700-1800 square foot house. It's built on a 6" concrete slab on top of Georgia red clay (in other words several feet thick of concrete like substance!).
I'm also...
To add to Martice's comments concerning the AV-1's, I was getting 102-103dB peaks in the Pod Race scene from TPM with all speakers set to small (100Hz fixed with my receiver) in my 15.5' x 18' room with 16' cathedral ceiling. The room is also completely open to the rest of my house. I did not...