Just to throw in my two cents here, but you seem to already be aware that bass is simply cone area time excursion. So having more cone area is a great inherent advantage. Also remember that the farther you force a subwoofer to move, the more its voice coil comes out of alignment and is prone to introduce distortion. The good news is that we typically can't hear anything less that 10% distortion or so the theory goes. Also remember that once you need 10 times the amplifier power to double the volume of any given system. So if you can make the 10" system efficient enough (big box) you should be able to do well. Anyway, my two cents.
Anthropas