Oh I hear you about the fact that alot can be done but there simply is no replacement for a large room. Best Buy near me has a crappy Bose speaker system is set-up in a large open spaced area...by no means do they sound that good but they certainly dont sound bad. This summer I plan on dragging my Stage 4 Pis outside and hooking them up to my QSC 1850HD amp just to get an idea of what their true potential is.