Bookshelf/Small Speakers

Find your pleasing small speakers, but add a small powered subwoofer like a Rel T7i
this assumes you are in a smallish room, and not a head-banger. 

I used to have many pairs of totem speakers: model 1’s, arro, and a couple pairs of mani 2’s. I used a Rel sub with the model 1’s. The mani’s are far better than the model 1’s but you need a very good powerful amp, even the model 1’s need a good amp to sound their best.
I sold all of my totem’s and bought all Usher speakers. I think the new Ushers blow away the totems mainly because of the Diamond tweeter. Even their silk or beryllium tweeters sound better. A small usher speaker is the s-520, the bigger bookshelf are the x-719 with silk tweeter. A move up is to the mini-x with the Diamond tweeter. I’ve owned all of these plus some of their floorstanding speakers and still have the s-520’s and their larger x-towers.

Plus 1 on any iteration of the Kef LS50.  Supplement the low end with a micro sub from Kef or SVS (depending on budget). 

I just picked up a pair of RS6 Infinities for 50.00 usd I had 2 new Dayton 8" reference HE drivers.. Holy moly. What a killer speaker. That speaker will better most bookshelfs at 2-4k. AT least 92% efficient.

A MC225 is just thumpin' and clear as a bell with poly dome mids  and planar/ribbons for highs..

No kidding they will better the LS50 2 X pretty easy.. I like the LS50 just no match for the RS6s. I have a whoppin 200.00 usd invested.. All poly caps (100 year caps). 50-100.00 more on a XO rebuild.. Fun project took me 3 hours.. with a clean and wax job..

Options ay...

Regards

OP:  Small speakers.   The smallest.

I listened yesterday to a BBC Radio piece on Joni Mitchell.
At my desk where there is a cheap Dell with standard sound card and two tiny plastic speakers.  The speakers are 3.5 feet apart and not toed in at all or angled up.  My head is a foot above their plane and 3.5 feet from the line joining them.

The programme celebrated the 50th anniversary of 'Blue' so most of the music was from there.  I don't know what the BBC's source was but presumably CD or streaming.  The radio signal is digital.

The thing was that on this crudest of replay systems the soundstage stretched way outside the speakers.  I closed my eyes and pin-pointed the limits and found on the left side the image stretched fully one foot beyond the speaker.  I can also say the sound quality overall was very good.

I am very familiar with 'Blue' and have four different LP issues.  In scale, my big system with Martin Logan CLX Anniversaries doesn't stretch nearly that wide.

Go figure.