The infamous

Tubegroover, as far as the very deep low end is concerend, I could not agree more with you. But as far as the other parameters are concerend, which are generally held in high esteem in our circles, if find Albert's limits right on the money, even for smallish rooms. In-field listening can both be very rewarding but also very critical, mercilessly showing up even the tiniest lack in musical coherence or a faulty voicing of your system, whereas big rooms are often quite forgiving, as far as these two aspects are concerend. Here in Europe, living space is generally smaller as compared to the States, so audiophiles here generally have to contend with smallish listening areas and are quite savvy to make the best of that fact.

Plato, to my mind you plead your case very well and I have no reason to argue the point, that for the amount you've mentioned, you can have a high degree of musical enjoyment in your home and can even forget about the system and just listen to the music. But then there is that rare breed of "fanatics", who are intimately familiar with all sorts of live music and strive to come as close as possible to that experience with their rigs and here the curve of deminishing returns ( always in regard to the live event ) rises much less sharply as you might think. That is why Albert's numbers are indeed perfectly reasonable and - should you belong to that "breed" - quite within normal limits.

Well spoken Slawney! Luckily my system only grew slowly through the years and always in reference (and reverence!)
to live music as I percieved it.