Scaling down

YOU'LL THINK I'M CRAZY FOR SAYING THIS, BUT...
i relax late at night lying in bed with a Tivoli RADIO + subwoofer system on either night-stand. i listen to classical, jazz, rock, and even NPR. Everything sounds good and i can even crank up the volume pretty far. in the living room i have a X00W/channel stereo and it's great and all, but... each recording sounds different (even weird) depending on the quality of the engineering, and this can sometimes almost-ruin my effort to get lost in the MUSIC. this barrier does not present itself in the bedroom. i can listen to a football game and turn down the TV (and not listen to the commercials) or listen to Beethoven; either way the sound doesn't irritate my brain. i can't say the same thing for my SOTA thingy.
i can stay relaxed for hours on end this way or OTOH worry about how a piece is going to make me have to get up after 10 minutes and hit "eject".

my experience w/ a small(er) system is different & more positive that yours: my bedroom system costs <$2K total & I use it very, very often playing my iPod, FM radio, Pandora & some CDs thru it. I listen for hours on end with a great deal of satisfaction. It does not sound like my reference system but, nonetheless, it's very enjoyable.

Not having a really big system, I'd have to say I could be happy if I did some careful and considerate shopping. There were some great sounding, smaller systems at the Newport Audio Show but they weren't cheap.

It would all depend on the size you're re referring to.

All the best,
Nonoise

my take on this is that having just one system doesn't work for me. so i have 4 systems of varying costs and applications. all are very enjoyeable.

"Scaling down" for any other reason than desparate need for money, or moving to a smaller space, is rather foolish IMO.
First, if all the person wants is different sound, then just dumping everything and starting over is silly.
This is the "Gee I liked music when i had a simple setup, so I will go back to that" syndrome. (it does not work...))

Thinking this is too much stuff,, then selling it is taking a huge money bath, plus the wasted time. The smaller system will not please anyway, and eventually the owner of the downsized will go right back to what they had before.. After the fixation with whatever made them downsize passes.

Personally I would suggest just 'ignoring' the stuff. Think of it as another pile of junk you own.. so what. Get over the emotional issue making you want to get rid of the source of the irritation, instead of finding the reason for it being irritating.
The most common so called reasons are displeasure at the result: that is you are not happy with the sound, even though you SPENT $$$, so in a pissed off mood you want to sell it all.
Or, You find a new partner, who does not like the stuff.

Other reasons I have seen are going deaf(er) and out of self spite selling everything (this is the cutting off your nose to spite your face method)

Having to move to a (much) smaller space: this is the one valid reason I can see for moving to a smaller setup.
Though really one can have a pair of giant monoblocks and huge speakers in an 11" by 12" space easy..
The only problem with big electronics in a small spavce may be the amperage available may not be adequate.

So you can see, I am not big on tossing years of effort chasing some pie in the sky ideal of a smaller is better...

As i dream of bigger amps and speakers...