I skimmed through the thread and saw a number of comments about mid-bass being insufficient in small speakers even with a sub, and I couldn't agree more. Apologies if this has already been shared, but take a look at the average spectrum of pop music here, especially the 100-300hz range:
Average spectrum of all available data
And then look at the distortion and compression results across a variety of speakers in the same 100-300hz range. You will quickly realize that a relatively large speaker (a single large driver or multiple smaller drivers) is still necessary to enable uncompressed playback of the average musical signal between 100 and 300Hz--or even 500hz for some speakers--with a subwoofer. Even the venerable Kii Three is a no-go for me based on it's instantaneous compression results in this range.
Just how pronounced the improvement is was the biggest surprise for me. A quick example is the synth that kicks in at the 38 second mark of James Dean (2015 Remaster) by JR JR; there's a presence to the synth in large speakers that I've never heard fully reproduced at a satisfying playback level in a small speaker--even with a sub-- outside of the near-field.
So for this listener, subwoofers in no way make large speakers obsolete.
Edited: Typo and reference to Kii Three