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What makes speaker's sound big?

Does a speaker need to have many drivers or a large driver area to sound big and fill the room?
I am asking this question because I have a pair of tekton design double impact and would like to replace them with smaller speakers and a pair of subwoofer's to better integrate the bass into my room.
I just borrowed a set of B&W 702S. The are good but the just don't make that floor to ceiling sound that I like.
Maybe I have already answered my own question (: But again I have not heard all the speakers out there.
My room measure 15x19' and the ceiling goes from 7.5 to 12.8'

martin-andersen
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dbphd
1,631 posts
 
I had the same experience as OP's with my KEF Reference 1s, they sounded great for jazz and baroque, but less satisfying for large orchestrations than the KEF Reference 107/2s they replaced.  So I carefully went through the setup of the Velodyne SMS-1 bass manager and the  pair of HGS-15 it manages, changing all the cables AND resetting the crossover from 40 to 80 Hz.  Magic happened.  The setup is as satisfying as ever for jazz and baroque, but now also has the spacious soundstage for large orchestrations.  A Mahler symphony sounds grand again.

db 
martin-andersen OP
139 posts
 
Thanks @verdantaudio
james633
1,047 posts
 
Deep bass
wide dispersion 
dynamic transients 
bobandcindy101's avatar
bobandcindy101
62 posts
 
There’s not really any substitute for BIG drivers and LOTS of them! The most “you are there” sounding speakers I’ve ever heard were a pair of Ezekiels; twin 15” woofers, twin 10” mids, a three inch Mylar dome tweeter and one ultra-HF horn tweeter in each cabinet. With good audiophile grade vinyl, or reel-to-reel tapes; you literally couldn’t tell the difference from a live performance. We used to go hear Steeleye Span and the Seldom Scene at local DC clubs all the time.  The sound was IDENTICAL!
p05129
505 posts
 
MC give it a break, you never even heard the op’s speakers. The OP wants to get a different speaker and yes, they will be much better than what he currently has, it won’t take much. You don’t need large drivers to get big sound. Some of the best sounding speakers use multiple smaller woofers to get full sound. For example, look at raidho, revel salon 2’s/studio 2’s, and others. 
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