Coming back to your original post … In my journey I started out with the mantra of go passive or go home. While I believe you can achieve outstanding results with a superb passive design (Salon 2!), in the end I ended up coming to the conclusion that active is the best way to achieve state of the art performance. I will say I do still have some passive designs on my short list, but in the end I expect the final choice will be active. We shall see.
I am also a big believer in large full range floorstanders with large drivers. From what I have heard past year or so in my quest, it is the only the large floorstanders that give me the dynamics and scale I am looking for. Definitely no monitors in my future. With this said, your listening space is quite small and something like the 8C would be more than capable to fill that space. However, with a cardioid design floorstander and a bit of room EQ, you could get the benefits of a large driver system even in a small space. To say, I do not subscribe to the fairly common thought that you can’t use large speakers in a smaller space, but careful setup is certainly more warranted in that case.
On the topic of full range mains … do you want to use subwoofers, or you rather avoid if possible?
And for what it’s worth, my latest short list below (yes, there are some passives and yes, some that are not supported with measurements, which I hope I will be able to obtain from manufacturer at some point … they are on the list first and foremost because I have spent extensive time listening to them and they offered outstanding SUBJECTIVE performance for my ears).
D&D (not the 8C, rather the upcoming larger design)
Clarysis (passive dipole planar)
Diptyque (passive dipole planar)
Legacy V System and Aeris (mixed passive/active)
Soundfield custom (active)
GT Audioworks (passive dipole planar, though the subwoofer towers are active, haven’t actually heard this one yet, look very intriguing)
I should note that Legacy now has a fully active tower speaker (Focus XD) that was positively reviewed on Soundstage, though this is primarily a subjective review, but there are at least some measurements (better than nothing, but far from what we like to see here in ASR). This tower is too small for me, but I wonder if Legacy will start designing more of their offerings as fully active (many already are mixed … low freq active, remainder passive). They also have a fully active monitor you may consider, the Calibre. But I have not heard it nor do I know if any measurements.
Legacy Focus review …
https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews...ocus-xd-floor-standing-speaker-review-part-i/
By the way, have you considered the JBL 4329p ? I have not heard it, but looks to be a very good design …
https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/jbl_4329p/