Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?

phusis I’ve heard my share of small, even very expensive such speakers sounding small, strained and much less than natural (to my ears) in a variety of listening spaces,

Below videos are my audio system consists 5.25" 2 way speakers. Do you hear such a strained and less natural? My room is 22' x 14' x 8'. Alex/Wavetouch

My Rival - Steely Dan, Wavetouch audio live recording

Lidia Borda - Cuando silba el viento, Wavetouch audio live recording

Self Control (Laura Branigan) - Wavetouch audio live recording

Alex, while I agree that @phusis point about small speakers sounding small. strained and much less natural in a variety of listening spaces is a very wide and somewhat incorrect statement, I do think we have to be fair to him. Your speakers, and really all speakers with a 5.25" bass driver cannot really push huge amounts of air. As such, when a bass wave that would drop down into the 20Hz range is needed to be played back, well it is MIA. The listener will not feel anything like the punch or air that a much larger driver in a much larger speaker can deliver. From this perspective, phusis’s point about Physics becomes a factor, which there is no getting around. This is why I add subwoofers to my small stand mounts. IME, in a small room, the subwoofer is just as crucial. In fact more than one subwoofer is crucial. Now, that subwoofer has to be tailored to the room size and type of main speaker, so again phusis’ point about not caring about tailoring your speaker size to your room, is IMO totally incorrect.

@audioman58 makes a good point. 
 

So it depends on what you consider great sound. If imaging and disappearance is more important to you than coherence and presence then small stand mounts are likely to sound greater to you. 
 

Of course the higher you go up the investment levels the more you get both. 

@mihorn wrote:

Below videos are my audio system consists 5.25" 2 way speakers. Do you hear such a strained and less natural? My room is 22’ x 14’ x 8’. Alex/Wavetouch

Compared to what? It doesn’t really take much of a SPL to begin feeling the effort of reproduction via low efficiency, smaller speakers (and subs) when what you’re used to is something different altogether and physically much more capable. Experience, and perspective.

@daveyf wrote:

... all speakers with a 5.25" bass driver cannot really push huge amounts of air. As such, when a bass wave that would drop down into the 20Hz range is needed to be played back, well it is MIA. The listener will not feel anything like the punch or air that a much larger driver in a much larger speaker can deliver.

+1

IME, in a small room, the subwoofer is just as crucial. In fact more than one subwoofer is crucial. Now, that subwoofer has to be tailored to the room size and type of main speaker, so again phusis’ point about not caring about tailoring your speaker size to your room, is IMO totally incorrect.

What is incorrect here is your assumption of my not caring about the speaker-room interaction. I’m saying parameters like limited/narrow, controlled and even dispersion characteristics, means of integration from active config. + DSP and separate subs makes the room and acoustics potentially less of a factor, or certainly one that can more easily be worked around. Summation of the driver segments at the LP is paramount, and depending on the design this can be achieved with large displacement speakers as well - even without requiring long-ish listening distances.

Bass capacity, practically speaking, can hardly be overdone; it’s the integration and overall balance of the presentation that matters - and, as they say, headroom is your friend. Few seem to realize that more cone/effective air radiation area in the bass and subs region doesn’t come with the requirement of it to be dialed more hot (although it can be, without tipping the balance, being it’s typically a cleaner bass at a given SPL). Instead, more capacity equates into more headroom and thereby provides for a cleaner, less distorted bass, although deeper bass with proper volume and energy is more likely to excite room modes and therefore requires more with regard to integration - be that with subs placement, more sources of theirs or and/or digital room correction and acoustical means.

@phusis I thought you did not care about speaker-room interaction because upstream you posted this:"brought on as the BS rationale of "fitting your speakers to the listening room size-wise."

IMO, if you want to run too large a speaker into too small a room, there really is nothing you can do to compensate for this error. Sure, you can make the speaker work, but it will NOT work anywhere near what its full capability is. Therefore, the highlighted point is incorrect, as it is of major importance to fit your speaker to your room, size-wise, IMO. As I stated before, there are numerous examples of this mistake, many foisted on the a’phile by the fact that he wants the biggest speaker possible (and re-enforced by his/her dealer, as large speakers are typically more $$) but not having the room to accommodate the speaker.