grannyring, I agree with you that some companies/drivers are much better at attaining an effortless sound than others. Dali makes an excellent product, and I have thought of reviewing one several times.
I am spoiled by regular use of larger speakers, which has skewed my expectation, standard of what constitutes refined sound. I would struggle to accept a monitor or smallish floor standing speaker as my reference. If the bulk of my experience was with speakers with 6-7" bass driver(s) likely I would agree with you entirely.
I struggle to think of any driver under 8" across the industry that has an effortless sound when listening at higher levels compared to much larger drivers. Others disagree, so be it. The perceptions and expectations of audiophiles in terms of sound are as wide as the performance of systems themselves. I'm not expecting anyone who has not used much larger systems in their home to agree with me. They may work hard to get a smallish speaker to sound far more relaxed and effortless relatively compared to their earlier systems, so they think it's got a high degree of that attribute. In my experience not so in comparison with far more formidable speakers.
The smallest dynamic driver I have heard in my room that can put out 20Hz +/- 3dB and not sound strained is the Audio Technology 11" in the Vapor Audio Joule White speakers (reviewed for Dagogo.com) YMMV
I am spoiled by regular use of larger speakers, which has skewed my expectation, standard of what constitutes refined sound. I would struggle to accept a monitor or smallish floor standing speaker as my reference. If the bulk of my experience was with speakers with 6-7" bass driver(s) likely I would agree with you entirely.
I struggle to think of any driver under 8" across the industry that has an effortless sound when listening at higher levels compared to much larger drivers. Others disagree, so be it. The perceptions and expectations of audiophiles in terms of sound are as wide as the performance of systems themselves. I'm not expecting anyone who has not used much larger systems in their home to agree with me. They may work hard to get a smallish speaker to sound far more relaxed and effortless relatively compared to their earlier systems, so they think it's got a high degree of that attribute. In my experience not so in comparison with far more formidable speakers.
The smallest dynamic driver I have heard in my room that can put out 20Hz +/- 3dB and not sound strained is the Audio Technology 11" in the Vapor Audio Joule White speakers (reviewed for Dagogo.com) YMMV