Speaker size and soundstage

I remember a few decades back at a Chicago show, HSU had a pair of bookshelf speakers and a powered sub (or 2) in a very large room. It was pretty impressive. I came home and bought a pair of Reference 3As and tried 2 different Sunfire subs, but did not find them a good match for 2 channel HiFi. I sold both and bought several pairs of 3 ways and Maggie 3.5Rs.


Fast Forward to the present, I have a pair of Emerald Physics 3.4s (2 way with 12" concentric driver with 1" polyester tweeter) + a 10+ year old pair of SVS powered subs (the volume controls in their BASH plate amps are the weak link), BUT, is very enjoyable

hth

Speaker size has a lot to do with bass response.  It has very little to do with imaging.  Many times a simple two way monitor will offer a superior and huge image when set up correctly.  One of the things that amazed me with Tekton DI's and the Electron SE was how well Eric designed these to image so well in spite of their size and multiplicity of drivers.  Quite a feat.  

I think people have different definitions of soundstage.  IMO, it means a speaker's ability to portray the musicians in the places they were put in the recording so instruments can be identified by location.  Just know that few recordings have natural instrument placement and most are placed by the engineer through the use of panpots, or however it's done now.  But I think many people use soundstage to mean the physical size of the instruments.  I've never liked the Wilson Watt/Puppy because it always sounded like it made everything sound unnaturally big.  But their success in the market place certainly proves Wilson knew their target audience. But in the end, as with all things in audio, everything matters - the speakers, the rest of the equipment, the room, the recording and - most of all, your personal preference.  As far as bass response goes, IMO it depends on the room/speaker interface.  I'm getting better bass response with little Harbeth P3s in my room than I did with the much larger M30s.  Just the way the speaker works with the room.  

Thanks for the input all! Such an interesting journey to find the perfect speaker match with my room (can’t change), my gear, and listening preferences.

I just moved the Dyns further away from the wall, reduced toe in, and moved closer to the listening position. Definitely improved the sound stage. 
I guess for me, I look for a wide sound stage that fills the room and makes the speakers disappear. When the Dyns were further back the sound stage was definitely narrower and felt cut off at vertically—like the music just stopped at a certain height. I felt the need to keep increasing the volume to fill the room. The Tektons on the other hand fill the room and disappear at moderate volume.

Makes me think the Dyns are just not matched with the room and the listening configuration and electronics because they sounded brilliant in the store.

In my many years of audio, I have found that in a domestic living environment, the speaker/room interface is a total crapshoot.  I'm talking about rooms where you have limited placement options, seating options and furniture-moving options.  I have never found a correlation between speaker size and how they worked in my room.  Some did and some didn't. But you should experiment within the parameters you have.  Moving a speaker a few inches closer or further from the back wall can have a big effect on the sound.