Like I alluded to on the first page, I don't think it's so much a money thing as it is today's drivers are a lot more advanced. My current towers -3 dB is 41 hz with 5.5" bass drivers. I've owned a couple of different speakers with larger drivers that can't dig that deep. My older B&Ws had 8" woofers and wouldn't go down to 41 hz.
I will agree with you in principal. What we get out of current technology with speaker drivers is pretty cool. For a modest sum, we can get outstanding performance in a modest footprint. If we get antsy and want something bigger, well, there's somebody that will sell bigger drivers in bigger cabinets as well. If the wife gets pissed at the size, well, there's always the tiny drivers in the tiny speakers. For what we are paying, we get pretty incredible sound. Even if we step aside from the world of reality and go for the super duper super expensive stuff, many of those arrangements are driving 10's or more of mid sized drivers.
And it can all be augmented with a subwoofer tucked away out of sight somewhere if you don't feel like you're getting your sub bass stuff. We live in a time where we get a lot of sound for not a lot of money. At every price point it seems there's something worth considering. Or expressed another way, at every price point there's something audiophiles find worth arguing over and spitting nails at each other.
