In spite of what modern trends may inflict, there is still no replacement for displacement. Luckily for me, I went for the biggies first, and experimented with the smaller speakers after. Thank God I went with what I knew about physics first. I found out a few things. My absolute minimum near field woofer size is 6.5" and I can 'just' get by with that. 8" is my real minimum, and again, point-blank near field use with just enough oompf for living room music for casual listening.
Anything two-way, should be considered to need a subwoofer, and preferably a pair. Two-way for full range use is like a 3-way speaker that is missing it's 3rd way, and typically at the peril of mid-range. Now they have two-ways with little subwoofer drivers with rolled rubber surrounds trying to be more than they ever can be, and to me they sound exactly like that. As soon as I see someone claim (nearly cliché now) that some little 5" two way "sounds much bigger than it actually is," I run the other way.
You can find speakers like you want, but they are typically expensive. I had to build mine from a kit because I could not find exactly what I wanted. Thankfully a member here knew what I was on about and suggested a good design that actually measure quite well too, and can handle about 500 WRMS of power with very low distortion. They're in essence of something of a monitor style like I might have picked by JBL, and with 12" paper woofers, FTW.
