I have to imagine that a large speaker with multiple drivers and large woofers can do things that a small two-way cannot, and just as importantly the small two-way will excel in many ways that a large, multi-driver, big woofer cannot match. The Vandersteen 3As comes to mind as a speaker that has some of the attributes of both extremes, and makes an excellent all-around speaker for all types of music. I prefer Merlin VSMs that excel at the kind of music I most care to listen to small group jazz, accoustic, and chamber music - a similar genre speaker as the Quads, but louder and more dynamic and ultimatley a wider range of music - but I would not choose it if I wanted to listen to reggae all day long.
Best all around speakers
Just curious what people think around here for best all around speakers for wide variety of musical genres and amplifications needs (tubes and solid state). Not everybody listen exclusively to Diana Krall and Norah Jones and/or acoustical jazz or classical music. Some of us like to listen to a wide variety of music (from rock and roll to bluegrass to blues to you name it) and don't feel the need or want to have a differet speaker for each genre of music. Seems to me many speaker designers have a very narrow taste in music, which unfortunately doesn't reflect what most people listen to, which I think is one of the reasons why many speakers end up disappointing quite a number of listeners.