I think I can handle this one better than most here from an experience stand point. And I myself have been in a similar place as you, with the similar kinds of music demands and tastes! I like music that is VERY DYNAMIC AND DEMANDING(even at lower levels), as well as the almighty HT dynamically demanding medium.
Now, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE USING A RECEIVER, and you are in a small environment that will likely have some difficult BASS MODE CHALLENGES, might I consider some EASY TO DRIVE,BASS LIMITED monitors that are fast and dynamic, and let a WELL POSSITIONED subwoofer handle the bass for ALL SITUATIONS!?!...music and HT! You could also use some floor stands possitioned out in to the room a bit, but I would still STRONGLY RECOMMEND cutting em off as "small" on your receiver, and letting a more adept POWERED SUB handle the bass. Receivers especially are going to be too weak to properly handle dynamics and bass for anything that demands HIGH CURRENT(i.e, Rock,HT,and similiarly dynamically demanding). The active sub is going to help you out tremendously. And while you could get excellent dynamic results using speakers with POWERED WOOFERS built in, which help a receiver out tremendously dynamically, you'll still have to either run em as "small" on your receiver (too boomy otherwise because of small room bass mode problems), or EQ the crud out of the bass drivers(which is do-able,but trickier).
A simple and effective sollution for your Rock and HT needs for high end great sound(I assume you want that) in that space-challenged apartment, would be to use the dynamite, dynamic, fast, coherent, musical and "small room flexible" Dunlavy SCIav monitor!(used $400 ea). There are serveral Audio/HT mag reviewers that have used these over the years, because they're excellent, and fit into smaller spaces well!Robert Deutsch and Steve Stone From SGHT mage are two of them.
The Dunlavy's play down to only about 70hz effectively, and do best closer to the walls than most. They're easy to drive and 91db sensitive, wich will also help your receivers amps greatly.
YOu can match 3 fronts of these up with 2 more of these in the rear/sides, or add a very simalar sounding M&K tripole for the rears in stead. You'll need a very good sounding receiver to match the analytical and Matter-of-fact sounding Dunlavy's, so don't skimp there(infact, separates would be best if you could.
Never the less, something like a good used B&K AVR305/7 receiver would do well sonically as a match. Even better, would be the separates route, using even a modest Parasound 855a($350 used) amp and something like an Acurus ACT 3 or Classe SSP25($600-$1100used) Add a very fast, musical, tight, ultra dynamic and authoritative M&K MX series sub to the mix, and you'd have a DYNAMITE, FAST, HIGHLY DYNAMIC, MUSICAL,CLEAR, AND ACCURATE sounding HT/music system for your small space! The Amps would match the speaker perfectly, and the preamps are as clean as a whistle!
Broken down, it would look like this:
3ea)Dunlavy SCIav's---$1200 used approx.
2ea)M&K SS150 tripoles---$600 used approx.
1ea)M&K MX150 THX subwoofer---$600-700 used approx
1ea)Parasound HCA855a/HCA1205a--$350-700 used
1ea)Acurus ACT 3 or Classe SSP25 pre/pro's---$600-$1100 used
Or substitute amp and pre for B&K AVR305/7--$1000-1200
The above system choices are going to be unbeatable mostly for you! You could substitute floor standers for the likes of PSB Stratus Silver I's and C5/6 center and PSB Mini Rears(Former Stereophile Silver Award winning "dream system"), but it's a harder system to drive with more placment challenges. The powered Def TEch's are also trickier for you, and are not quite as refined, but dynamic and easy to drive! Either way, you're still going to have to consider speaker wires and interconnects of quality, so you might factor those in as well. And if you wanted to REALLY GET INTO tweeking out your sound sometime, get a parametric EQ for your sub!
Anyway, have fun...that's my recommendation
Now, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE USING A RECEIVER, and you are in a small environment that will likely have some difficult BASS MODE CHALLENGES, might I consider some EASY TO DRIVE,BASS LIMITED monitors that are fast and dynamic, and let a WELL POSSITIONED subwoofer handle the bass for ALL SITUATIONS!?!...music and HT! You could also use some floor stands possitioned out in to the room a bit, but I would still STRONGLY RECOMMEND cutting em off as "small" on your receiver, and letting a more adept POWERED SUB handle the bass. Receivers especially are going to be too weak to properly handle dynamics and bass for anything that demands HIGH CURRENT(i.e, Rock,HT,and similiarly dynamically demanding). The active sub is going to help you out tremendously. And while you could get excellent dynamic results using speakers with POWERED WOOFERS built in, which help a receiver out tremendously dynamically, you'll still have to either run em as "small" on your receiver (too boomy otherwise because of small room bass mode problems), or EQ the crud out of the bass drivers(which is do-able,but trickier).
A simple and effective sollution for your Rock and HT needs for high end great sound(I assume you want that) in that space-challenged apartment, would be to use the dynamite, dynamic, fast, coherent, musical and "small room flexible" Dunlavy SCIav monitor!(used $400 ea). There are serveral Audio/HT mag reviewers that have used these over the years, because they're excellent, and fit into smaller spaces well!Robert Deutsch and Steve Stone From SGHT mage are two of them.
The Dunlavy's play down to only about 70hz effectively, and do best closer to the walls than most. They're easy to drive and 91db sensitive, wich will also help your receivers amps greatly.
YOu can match 3 fronts of these up with 2 more of these in the rear/sides, or add a very simalar sounding M&K tripole for the rears in stead. You'll need a very good sounding receiver to match the analytical and Matter-of-fact sounding Dunlavy's, so don't skimp there(infact, separates would be best if you could.
Never the less, something like a good used B&K AVR305/7 receiver would do well sonically as a match. Even better, would be the separates route, using even a modest Parasound 855a($350 used) amp and something like an Acurus ACT 3 or Classe SSP25($600-$1100used) Add a very fast, musical, tight, ultra dynamic and authoritative M&K MX series sub to the mix, and you'd have a DYNAMITE, FAST, HIGHLY DYNAMIC, MUSICAL,CLEAR, AND ACCURATE sounding HT/music system for your small space! The Amps would match the speaker perfectly, and the preamps are as clean as a whistle!
Broken down, it would look like this:
3ea)Dunlavy SCIav's---$1200 used approx.
2ea)M&K SS150 tripoles---$600 used approx.
1ea)M&K MX150 THX subwoofer---$600-700 used approx
1ea)Parasound HCA855a/HCA1205a--$350-700 used
1ea)Acurus ACT 3 or Classe SSP25 pre/pro's---$600-$1100 used
Or substitute amp and pre for B&K AVR305/7--$1000-1200
The above system choices are going to be unbeatable mostly for you! You could substitute floor standers for the likes of PSB Stratus Silver I's and C5/6 center and PSB Mini Rears(Former Stereophile Silver Award winning "dream system"), but it's a harder system to drive with more placment challenges. The powered Def TEch's are also trickier for you, and are not quite as refined, but dynamic and easy to drive! Either way, you're still going to have to consider speaker wires and interconnects of quality, so you might factor those in as well. And if you wanted to REALLY GET INTO tweeking out your sound sometime, get a parametric EQ for your sub!
Anyway, have fun...that's my recommendation