World's best small speaker?

It depends on what you call small. I haven't had the opportunity to try any really expensive speakers in my rig. I just never thought it was worth it. In my system, I'm limited to about a 12.5" overall height and they have to sit on shelves in an entertainment center.

After a lot of shopping around, I settled on the Silverline Minuet Supreme Plus. It is very small, with a midbass driver in the neighborhood of about 3.5". This little speaker doesn't do everything, but it does what it can very well, without doing very much wrong.

It is also very forgiving in terms of placement.

Best is very subjective. Not too happy with Magico - way too expensive IMHO and it has a sound that polarizes - many think its brittle - but some love it.

My favorite small speaker is the Lenehan ML1 Reference. But again it polarizes; check out the following review:
http://www.stereomojo.com/LENEHAN%20ML1%20REFERENCE%20SPEAKER%20REVIEW/LenehandML1ReferenceSpeaker.htm

One reviewer - best mini-monitor he ever reviewed - he wants to shout it far and wide how good it is - another - ho hum.

Sorry there is no way to answer your question - you must go out and listen to stuff - that's the only way.

And when you do that make sure you post about it so others can benefit. You wouldn't know that many people are less than enamoured with Magico for example unless people post about it. From the reviews you would think its the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It is a very very sad fact that reviews of products like the ML1 I posted are virtually non existent yet anyone that listens to gear with others knows someone can love a bit of gear and another, listening to exactly the same thing, can walk away shaking their head. And measurements wont help either - the ML1 measures pretty close to flawless - as does the Magico - but sound entirely different.

Thanks
Bill

So far the best small speaker I have heard is the High Emotion Audio Bella Twin. It is 16 ohms, about 93 db 1 watt/1 meter, honest to 36 hertz and has a tweeter that is easily one of the best in the world (its a sort of bending-ribbon driver with a dispersion angle of 120 degrees to both front and rear), crossed over at about 2KHz. The cabinet is well made and very non-resonant. It employs passive rear-firing radiators and seems to work best placed about 1.5 to 2.5 feet from the wall behind it.

This speaker is easy to drive, extremely accurate but non-fatiguing, very fast, and due to the tweeter has the a very wide sweet spot. If you hear it on this speaker its real, if you don't hear it on this speaker its either not there or its deep bass. We can drive it with 30 watts with ease. IMO the biggest weakness is that the dynamic range is limited by the excursion of the woofers; they do make a sub for it which I have not tried.

This speaker is an excellent monitor due to its extreme accuracy and the ease of driving it. We use a different version of this speaker as a near-field monitor in our recording studio.

Please try Franco Serblin Accordo. You will be surprised how exceptional they are.