I think the room aspect of the equation is the most important one. I have a very big living room and also a small/medium bedroom. I've been listening to some different monitors as well as small floorstanders in both systems. It is amazing how much bass the small monitors have in the bedroom, they sound full and easily driven with 100 watts. In my living room however, almost no matter how big the speakers get I always feel like I need more. More power and more bass. The sound is overall better, but in the smaller room it is just so much easier for the speakers to do their thing. It has really got me thinking lately that if you do have a small to medium room, you are lucky in a way that you can easily drive your speakers with most amps and you will probably get plenty of bass and drive out of a smaller speaker.
Size matters Smaller that is
Hello,
Today I was at my local dealer listening to the most recent Sonus Faber Amati's. Wow what a beutiful speaker with quality exuding from everywhere. They were set up in the main listening room with Mcintosh 1.2"s and Mcintosh C1000T driving them, the source was also the reference Mcintosh player. The dealer put some Norah Jones on and off we went. I have to say that as good as the Amati's are to my ear they SLIGHTLY suffer from sounding a little closed in and boxy. By contrast my Sonus Faber Guarneri sound free, warm, and wonderfully open. This could be in part to my use of Mcintosh tube gear, but in general I find that larger speakers have to work very hard (Read expensive) to get out of there own way. I know no one speaker has it all, but in general I find that driven by first class electronics a smaller speaker is music to my ears. Where larger speakers also sound fantastic, but in general not as open and alive. Could also just be a Guarneri "Thing". My two cents anyway.
Regards
Today I was at my local dealer listening to the most recent Sonus Faber Amati's. Wow what a beutiful speaker with quality exuding from everywhere. They were set up in the main listening room with Mcintosh 1.2"s and Mcintosh C1000T driving them, the source was also the reference Mcintosh player. The dealer put some Norah Jones on and off we went. I have to say that as good as the Amati's are to my ear they SLIGHTLY suffer from sounding a little closed in and boxy. By contrast my Sonus Faber Guarneri sound free, warm, and wonderfully open. This could be in part to my use of Mcintosh tube gear, but in general I find that larger speakers have to work very hard (Read expensive) to get out of there own way. I know no one speaker has it all, but in general I find that driven by first class electronics a smaller speaker is music to my ears. Where larger speakers also sound fantastic, but in general not as open and alive. Could also just be a Guarneri "Thing". My two cents anyway.
Regards