I have always believed that given what I know now is that I would rather have a top notch system in a large walk in closet than a big system in an big common area. But it can be a small system in a large area as well.
Assuming you have no choice of location: there are additional corollaries. A carefully “right sized “ system placed in your venue could sound fantastic. So, if that is the space, much smaller speakers with a small sub and top quality electronics could be a fantastic system.
The advantage of a “smaller” system is that it can be higher quality components because less power and smaller speakers can be involved. We can talk about this more. But I would look at some really high quality stand mounted speakers… like Sonus Faber Olympica, and an Audio Reseach Vsi75 integrated amp. The Aurender N10 is great. You could go for a small subwoofer later.
Anyway, the point is carefully chosen and appropriately scaled and you can have a simply stunning system. The problem can be trying to put “big and powerful” stuff in an inappropriate setting. You want higher quality / appropriate sized equipment.
