What makes speaker's sound big?

'Di-polar' on the Martin Logans and Magneplaners. Oops, more coffee.

This is a great subject and one I have thought about, or wrestled with for some time. Thanks for all the very good views and thoughts expressed.

I owned Martin Logan SL3s as primary audio speakers for 16 years and loved the immersion. I equally agree with getting that from Maggies! And I think it is the bi-pole nature that does help in that aspect.   I moved finally to Dynaudio Sapphires and they were a much larger sound than any of my conventional coned dynamic speakers. Yes, "horsepower" (good one!)

But the brand I'm living with now are Raidhos and although the D2s won't do what the much larger ones will do I still love the tonality and rich clarity plus tight bass to near 30. But, to enlarge that sound I have dialed in an REL Britannia B1 at 28Hz and low volume and it opens up large halls.

There are lots of great inexpensive powered subs that will integrate better than most of years ago, and they uncannily open up everything for a subjectively larger sound.   It's almost stunning that a simple $1k SVS SB-3000 is pretty much the equal of the B1 (or better?) at 1/3 the price. Unreal. Maybe that is one of the least expensive ways of getting 'bigger sound'.  Fun topic.

Mahgister, I appreciate all the comments and think you are very correct that most of us don't fully appreciate correct room treatments, etc.

The most stunning demonstration I ever heard was at RMAF when one of the Brit reviewers did a session on equipment isolation and good stands. They also had four (2'x4' ?) Helmholtz resonator panels set for all four walls. The Wilson Audio Duettes? were stunningly set and sounded superb with the system sorted.

When the reviewer and the other guy pulled all four stands out of the room the 30+ people inside were stunned at the total collapse of what we had all just heard. Sure, there was music; but the difference was off the charts (worse).  Then they put the resonator panels back and the music came back. It was aurally incredible! No tricks, no stunts.

Sadly I've not had the patience or knowledge to recreate this in my room although I feel it is very room dependent in terms of the individual design, much like it seems your brick and pipe devices are designed.