diff --git a/io-streams.cabal b/io-streams.cabal
--- a/io-streams.cabal
+++ b/io-streams.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:                io-streams
-Version:             1.1.0.3
+Version:             1.1.1.0
 License:             BSD3
 License-file:        LICENSE
 Category:            Data, Network, IO-Streams
@@ -79,6 +79,10 @@
     * support for spawning processes and communicating with them using streams.
   .
   /ChangeLog/
+  .
+    [@1.1.1.0@] Added @System.IO.Streams.Network.socketToStreamsWithBufferSize@,
+                allowing control over the size of the receive buffers used when
+                reading from sockets.
   .
     [@1.1.0.3@] Fixed an inconsistent version upper bound in the test suite.
   .
diff --git a/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs b/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs
--- a/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs
+++ b/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs
@@ -2,11 +2,13 @@
 module System.IO.Streams.Network
   ( -- * Sockets to Streams
     socketToStreams
+  , socketToStreamsWithBufferSize
   ) where
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 import           Data.ByteString.Char8      (ByteString)
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8      as S
+import           Foreign.Storable           (sizeOf)
 import           Network.Socket             (Socket)
 import qualified Network.Socket.ByteString  as N
 import           System.IO.Streams.Internal (InputStream, OutputStream)
@@ -14,21 +16,38 @@
 
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+bUFSIZ :: Int
+bUFSIZ = 8192 - overhead
+  where
+    overhead = 4 * (sizeOf $! (0 :: Int))
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 -- | Converts a 'Socket' to an 'InputStream' \/ 'OutputStream' pair. Note that,
 -- as is usually the case in @io-streams@, writing a 'Nothing' to the generated
 -- 'OutputStream' does not cause the underlying 'Socket' to be closed.
 socketToStreams :: Socket
                 -> IO (InputStream ByteString, OutputStream ByteString)
-socketToStreams socket = do
+socketToStreams = socketToStreamsWithBufferSize bUFSIZ
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- | Converts a 'Socket' to an 'InputStream' \/ 'OutputStream' pair, with
+-- control over the size of the receive buffers. Note that, as is usually the
+-- case in @io-streams@, writing a 'Nothing' to the generated 'OutputStream'
+-- does not cause the underlying 'Socket' to be closed.
+socketToStreamsWithBufferSize
+    :: Int                      -- ^ how large the receive buffer should be
+    -> Socket                   -- ^ network socket
+    -> IO (InputStream ByteString, OutputStream ByteString)
+socketToStreamsWithBufferSize bufsiz socket = do
     is <- Streams.makeInputStream input
     os <- Streams.makeOutputStream output
     return $! (is, os)
 
   where
-    bUFSIZ = 32752
-
     input = do
-        s <- N.recv socket bUFSIZ
+        s <- N.recv socket bufsiz
         return $! if S.null s then Nothing else Just s
 
     output Nothing  = return $! ()