Why are big speakers in small rooms bad?

The only way you will know for sure is to try the PSB's.

With the Goldi. As mentioned Bass response will probably be an issue. Another has to do with the speaker being a 3 way. You generally need a fairly large distance between speaker and listener for the 3 drivers to sound integrated properly when they reach the listener. These are basically the reasons a monitor or small 2 way floorstander are the speaker of choice for a small room.

BW Maxx

11X15 Dedicated room doesnt sound all that small, you can pull your speakers 3 feet from wall and still have 10 feet of room between you and speakers if you place your spot on back wall (I gave you 2 feet from back wall) , if you place speakers closer to wall you have even more room.

For me it is more a visual thing than sonic problems. My room is also small but I've had speakers as large as Vandersteen 2CE sigs in there and although the sound can get cogested at higher volumes, at normal listening levels they didn't sound too bad. They did however overpower the room visually. Give the PSBs a try and let us know how they work and what position works best.

So what I'm hearing is that driver integration for near field listening and flexability in speaker placement for flat bass response are the 2 most critical issues here setting aside most fixable acoustic space problems.

If point source driver integration is a primary concern in a small room, do full range planars and stats do particularly well?

I recently purchased CARA and will be modeling and playing with room designs. There are so many variables to work with that I didn't immediately consider; like driver dispersion and integration...

I originally asked PSB months ago about recommended room size for the Goldi's. They stated a value, if I recall correctly, of about ~220 ft^2. This seems almost silly to me, in light of the previous discussions, to suggest a room area rather than generic dimensions and listening distances. Or did they just tell me that as a quick and easy answer?

My thanks to everyone for their public and private replies.

I'll be sure to post the results once I get everything set up. I plan on spending a good amount of time modeling, tweaking, and measuring the room response. This is my first dedicated room and I'm very curious to see how well very different speakers can be integrated with the room when the significant other isn't a factor.

Thank you to all of you for your comments. I definitely feel better about giving the Goldi's a try now.