Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?

Very true .... Bass control in the room cannot be efficient without controlling the zone pressure distribution ...Helmholtz tuned resonators did it for me in my last room ...

But speakers in a small wood two way box are also Helmholtz resonators ...😊

You can modify the port hole and redesign it as i did ... You can redesign the tweeter radiation pattern as i did ...And the low cost speakers now punch way above his price ...( 100 bucks 12 years ago and i disliked them for 11 years😁 )

Speakers/room relation is one thing that most people dont understand ...

They bought costly speakers thinking that speakers give their optimal S.Q. in any uncontrolled room ... This is false ...

And small speakers without being as good as big one because of bass depth can be more than just good in near listening in a dedicated acoustically controlled corner ...

The impact and change of a small speakers with a 4 inches woofer as mine could be astonishing ... ( i go 50 hertz clear no boominess)

I believe only in acoustics .... Price tag means nothing without acoustics ... And with acoustics a well designed low cost speakers can punch above what is expected ...

 Then to answer the OP question , the best way to have good sound is learning basic acoustics knowledge not buying small or big speakers ...

Breaking this down to size is oversimplification to the point of misinformation. What matters most are the radiation patterns of the drivers, the maximum SPLs one wants, the acoustical properties of the room (size and proportions are just two of many aspects) and the goals of the system. Boomy bass is almost always more a function of room acoustics, specifically bass absorption than speaker size. Radiation patterns only come into play with dipoles in the bass (mostly). Room size does play a part in the bass but bigger isn’t always better. Bigger just means the problems are lower on frequency which is often harder to solve. But bass absorption in a room matters much much more than room size. Boomy bass is not a result of a speaker simply being too big.

if it is a medium to big room, size really matters...

nearfield a different story

Even in nearfield the acoustic of the room matter ...

If we compute the number of times the waves at the speed of sound cross the walls of any room to our ears, we will be surprized ... 😊

People who think that because they listen nearfield room acoustics dont matter are in delusion not in acoustics ...

And the size of speakers as such even in a big room matter less than the way we understand acoustics relation between speakers/room and ears ... ...

Near field matters but it isn’t an all or nothing proposition. It has pretty much no effect on bass

Near field listening is generally spent with smaller speakers ...

I redesigned the porthole of my small speakers to go 50 hertz and when room acoustic is well done all is good at least for me ... Then it is not nearfield listening that matter but always acoustics , a box speaker is a resonator waiting to be tuned as much as any room wait to be tuned ... ......

But even with good room acoustic a small speakers set will not go 20 hertz clean for that we need a grid of subwoofers or at least one well coupled  and this is costlier 😊... I dont need that anyway ...music shine for me  ... My dream is very good S.Q. for peanuts ...

The only thing i need i hope this year , is what you have : the BACCH filters for my top headphone  ...

Near field matters but it isn’t an all or nothing proposition. It has pretty much no effect on bass