Scaling down

YOU'LL THINK I'M CRAZY FOR SAYING THIS, BUT...
i relax late at night lying in bed with a Tivoli RADIO + subwoofer system on either night-stand. i listen to classical, jazz, rock, and even NPR. Everything sounds good and i can even crank up the volume pretty far. in the living room i have a X00W/channel stereo and it's great and all, but... each recording sounds different (even weird) depending on the quality of the engineering, and this can sometimes almost-ruin my effort to get lost in the MUSIC. this barrier does not present itself in the bedroom. i can listen to a football game and turn down the TV (and not listen to the commercials) or listen to Beethoven; either way the sound doesn't irritate my brain. i can't say the same thing for my SOTA thingy.
i can stay relaxed for hours on end this way or OTOH worry about how a piece is going to make me have to get up after 10 minutes and hit "eject".

my experience w/ a small(er) system is different & more positive that yours: my bedroom system costs <$2K total & I use it very, very often playing my iPod, FM radio, Pandora & some CDs thru it. I listen for hours on end with a great deal of satisfaction. It does not sound like my reference system but, nonetheless, it's very enjoyable.

Not having a really big system, I'd have to say I could be happy if I did some careful and considerate shopping. There were some great sounding, smaller systems at the Newport Audio Show but they weren't cheap.

It would all depend on the size you're re referring to.

All the best,
Nonoise

my take on this is that having just one system doesn't work for me. so i have 4 systems of varying costs and applications. all are very enjoyeable.