"Best" is always subjective and depends heavily on the price range you are looking at. If price is no object you should try to find a pair of B&W JB Silver Signatures to audition. They are the best "small" speakers I have ever heard, and they have good bass extension (for their size) and interesting looks. Getting hard to find these days though; I've seen a couple of used pairs selling for around $5k over the past year or two. If your budget is more limited, B&W makes several cheaper though still fine sounding small speakers at various price breaks. For $2k (pair), you might also want to check out the Dunlavy SM-1; I have used this speaker for the past year and found it to have good sound (fast & detailed) and satisfying bass for its price and size, but it might be a little bigger than you are looking for. For the price, Paradigm Refs sounded pretty damn good to me too. Finally, if you want to go very small and very cheap, I think the NHT Super Zeros (and One's) give the best bang for the buck. The larger NHT 1.5's also make a nice bookshelf. Happy shopping
