I went backwards too, I had a shuttle 9.0 and a barefaced midget t/compact stack, great for the carrying but I just didn't like the sound, no matter what I tried it just didn't sound like 'me'. No matter what I did, despite all the theory saying otherwise, it sounded like a single 12" and an old school 15". Neither of which I like.
Now I'm on a markbass MoMark 800 and have gone back to 10's with a pair of Bergantino AE210's and couldn't be happier. Admittedly it's not a full step back to my old trace stack (AH400smx, two 4x10's and a bright box!) but it's a lot heavier, but worth the trade off in terms of sound quality IME, IMHO, YMMV etc