smaller speakers for critical listening?


I'm curious whether folks out here think that standmount speakers can reward "critical listening." 

I know that may be a ridiculous question; of course one can sit down with Radio Shack speakers and engage in serious listening, and of course the experience is subjective for all of us. I'm actually asking for subjective responses here. If your goal is a system for critical listening, do you think smaller speakers can do the trick or do you need the bigger soundstage and depth that can come with floor-standing, planar, or electrostatic speakers? 

I'm not asking which is *better* in a given speaker line, the small ones or the big ones, and I'm not thinking about $50k Wilson-Benesch Endeavours or the like. Before the pandemic I auditioned some highly enjoyable standmount speakers in the $5k-$10k range. However, listening for an hour in a store, I couldn't tell whether they crossed the threshold from "terrific sound for a small speaker" to pull-up-a-chair-and-tune-out-the-world bliss.

As you can probably tell, I'm struggling with my room; it's very hard to place big speakers in it. Otherwise I'd buy Maggies or Vandersteens or JA Perspectives, etc, and be happy. And, to repeat, I know that the threshold for critical-listening speakers is subjective. I'm asking for opinions and experiences!
northman
Loving my tannoys, very large standmounts, great bass, great everything actually. 
After a couple of weeks listening and dialling in with subs (ATC C1) I can confirm that Revel Gem 2’s are terrific speakers. The ATC 150 are standing silent...that also goes for the Dutch & Dutch. Pretty easy to integrate with subs while they don’t produce much noice below 70 hz. You need a good source and nice powerful amp.
Parker 601 from Schmidtlambrixaudio. Optional stereo subs reach VERY low. Transparent mids and high put the artist right in front of you.
I had B&W 650's with a sub for years and loved to acute listening sessions.
When i upgraded to Peachtree Nova 300 integrated amp I was ready to move up with speakers too but didn't want to give the detail and finese of a stand mount but wanted more SPL without sacrificing detail. The answer for me was the Tekton Double Impact monitors. I left in the same sub but hardly needs it and the depth and detail is amazing at any level.
I recently listened to the KEF Reference 1 stand mount speakers at my local dealer.  They were quit impressive.