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Unless you're talking about an outdoor concert or filling a really enormous room, better is what you want not necessarily bigger or smaller. This may be the only situation in which size really doesn't matter.

Performance is the important weight and size are not real world.

The size of speaker system is ultimately dependant on space available, the decor and on how much one is willing to spend. If space, budget, and decor are not the constraints, the current trend is to go for the bigger speakers. Bigger speakers, everything being equal, generally have better overall sound. The bass is fuller. There is this intrinsic wholeness in the reproduced sound or music. On the other hand, smaller speakers have limited bass output and may therefore sound puny by comparison. A high-end speaker system that lacks bass is a anomaly and is an inherent contradiction to be classed as such. High-end mean at the top of the hi-fi spectrum. How can it be at the top when the speakers are compromised particularly in the mid and lower bass as it is in the case of smaller speaker systems ? To me bass is an important element in music. It is my personal view that without bass, music is without wholeness and warmth.

Advances in technology, materials, CAD/CAM design have begun to repeal the laws of physics that demand that larger speakers sound better than small ones. Plus, I don't have the room for big speakers!

You can get some great sound from upper bass/lower midrange through the treble range in smaller speakers. However, to get great sound from 20 cps on up you simply have to have some size to produce the sound with authority in medium to larger rooms. I may never get there because of financial constraints, a constant problem with this hobby, but without that limitation my next speakers and

Smaller with a really great sub just sounds, and looks, better.

Shahinian Arc to Shahinian Obelisk.

I would love to move to smaller speakers. My pair of full-range towers dominate whatever room they are in. But, whenever I audition a really nice bookshelf or stand mounted unit, I think the sound is very nice, but it could be better. Then I listen to whatever full-size floor stander is in the same product line and think it sounds much better. There is only one way to go from here. When I have the room, I'll upgrade to an even bigger floorstanding loudspeaker.

I've got Dynaudio Audience 52 SEs in my smallish room. Except for the very, very bottom they have most of what I need for way less than much of the competition.

As you've often written in many reviews, you can get great sound from small speakers, you just can't get a lot of great sound from small speakers. Big room, big speakers.

As my listening rooms have shrunk during the last two moves, due to WAF issues, I am finding smaller monitors that produce beautiful images, depth, detail and dynamics in these smaller rooms. The trade off (there's always at least one), however, is I do not have that deep, deep bass for certain instruments like bass pedals and bass synthesizers. Oh well...

I just bought my Magnepan 3.6Rs and moved my Energy Veritas 2.3s to the rear cannels.

Used to have Avantgarde Unos (big) and then Audiostatic DCI Wings (6ft high), but I now have 3ft high Kharma speakers, and they're wonderful. I even had a brief fad for LS3/5As with subwoofers, and they were excellent too.... Like I keep telling my wife - size DOESN'T matter.

I recently bought my first pair of floorstanders. Compared to my old bookshelf speakers, the midbass integration with the subwoofer is much better. I lowered my crossover to 60 Hz and like it much better.

Just got the Sonus Faber Cremonas. Bigger is definitely better.

I don't favor any trend. Actually, I haven't purchased speakers since the '70s, but would like to soon. It's not a matter of size. For me it's a matter of finding a speaker that sounds good, and fits in my room. They'll have to sound good closer to the walls, the rear wall in particular, and fit in with the furniture. So, they'll probably not be that big, right? And they have to be affordable! Okay, so I'll have to say smaller in general, but not smaller than what I already own.

The real size of the music hall depends on the size of the speakers

I have a pair of Tannoy Arden (15" dual concentric). Sweet sounding and very dynamic loudspeakers

I changed (and seriously upgraded) from Mission 782 to B&W Nautilus 803 three years ago.

It "does the speaker do what it was designed to do and with the highest quality"

I prefer a slimmer cabinet due to room size restrictions. I currently had to downsize (unfortunately) from my Snell type E IV to a Spendor S6e. Spendor sounds better with voices and is a bit more detailed. Snell sound was bigger, deeper in the bass and more dynamic.

In most cases the full-size sound of a grownup speaker cannot be duplicated in a small cabinet.

I replaced Infinity Kappa 7s with Revel Performa F32s. Half the width, somewhat taller and deeper, and a whole lot easier to drive.

If I'm moving towards smaller mains plus a larger suf-woofer, where does that fit into your questionaire?

Going all British on speakers.... ProAc still rules...

There are both big ones and small ones that are fascinating.

only three way solution is perfect for me

In the last three years I have replace both long standing members of my system. Rogers LS3/5a's(purchased in 1980) this year with Harbeth Model 30's a larger bookshelf speaker(twice the size) and Thiel CS 2(purchased the year they were introduced 1980?) with verity Fidelo encore) a smaller floor standing speaker.

When I was younger, I wouldn't even look at a speaker unless the woofer was over 15". These days I ask how the speaker sounds, not how big the individual drivers are. My current Thiel CS6es are big (185 lbs each), but if I could get that sound from minimonitors, I would do it in a heartbeat.

maybe it's because i don't get to hit live concerts as much as i'd like to ,i'm finding more fun with speakers at home .i love it when i can plop down into the sweet spot and relax .fact is you cant do that with u2 or puffdaddy . in my room i need big speakers to get a full soundstage sure they don't have th intimacy of smaller speakers but whn you set them up right and turn off the lights the have a 3-dness that i don't get with smaller book shelf type speakers