Construction quality is going to dictate your direction more than anything else.
I once lived in 2 different units of the same apartment complex. Built 2001, very flimsy. The bottom level unit (facing the woods) had carpet over concrete slab and was FAR more enjoyable in terms of sound quality and ability to play moderate/loud. The walls were still flimsy but at least the floor anchored the sound. Big downside here was hearing everything from the unit upstairs, and the higher risk of break-in -- which did occur and caused me to move upstairs.
Then I had a top (4th) floor unit -- it was awful. I don't think there was any way to make those rooms sound good with large speakers, nor to limit sound transmission to below. Lost the nice view of the woods too; overlooked a parking lot. Moving out of there was liberating.
Best system I had in this complex was Tannoy Eyris DC3 compact floor-standers in the unit with concrete slab. Worst was Legacy Signature III (big floor-standers) or Tyler Acoustics Linbrook monitors (way-too-big monitors) in the top-floor unit. However, the Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference monitors (reasonable size monitors) did manage to sound excellent in that unit, at the expense of low bass. Magneplanars might have been interesting to try, but I never did.
I once lived in 2 different units of the same apartment complex. Built 2001, very flimsy. The bottom level unit (facing the woods) had carpet over concrete slab and was FAR more enjoyable in terms of sound quality and ability to play moderate/loud. The walls were still flimsy but at least the floor anchored the sound. Big downside here was hearing everything from the unit upstairs, and the higher risk of break-in -- which did occur and caused me to move upstairs.
Then I had a top (4th) floor unit -- it was awful. I don't think there was any way to make those rooms sound good with large speakers, nor to limit sound transmission to below. Lost the nice view of the woods too; overlooked a parking lot. Moving out of there was liberating.
Best system I had in this complex was Tannoy Eyris DC3 compact floor-standers in the unit with concrete slab. Worst was Legacy Signature III (big floor-standers) or Tyler Acoustics Linbrook monitors (way-too-big monitors) in the top-floor unit. However, the Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference monitors (reasonable size monitors) did manage to sound excellent in that unit, at the expense of low bass. Magneplanars might have been interesting to try, but I never did.