Apartment Dweller's Paradise - The Ideal 2 ch. system?

Move out of any apartment.

Hi Guys,

I know the ideal situation is to move to the wilderness and build your own home with a separate home theater and music room, and most of the reviews in Stereophile seem to pretend that is the only consumer of good audio gear.

The purpose of this thread however is to explore gear that is much more friendly to modest spaces and systems. Perhaps not just in modest homes/apartments but also offices.

Let's try to keep the focus on good gear for smaller spaces and budgets please.

Best,


Erik

I like what I heard from the Odyssey Kismet speaker that was on display at a show.  I believe the company makes direct sales, so it may not be that easy to arrange an audition.  I heard them in a small room at a show, placed not to far from the back wall, so I think they are suited for small spaces (small floor-standing speakers).

In the much more expensive camp, the smallest and cheapest Raidho speaker is pretty good (to me, better than their bigger speakers).

The British company Neat makes some nice speakers that will be a good fit for smaller rooms.

Also quite hard to find for audition, but worth looking for are Trenner and Friedl (Austrian) speakers.  These are lively sounding speakers that are a little bit off the beaten path.

I find it interesting that so many posters are suggesting systems with a multitude of components and loudspeakers that need to be placed out in the listening room for proper functioning.  Space is a luxury item for apartment dwellers and I doubt most will have a dedicated listening room.  Along these lines an ideal 2 channel system would be streaming device and a pair of wireless/powered loudspeakers.  Klipsch, Dynaudio, KEF, Paradigm and others make this type of loudspeaker.  Paired with a music streaming service such a system could even eliminate the space needed for CD storage.

Alternatively, Magnepan's Mini Maggie system doesn't take up much space and someone earlier mentioned Gradient Revolutions as loudspeakers that operate very well placed right up against the rear wall.  Either paired with a device like the AVM CD streaming receiver would be very satisfying.  Steinway Lyngdorf's Model S system would require more components (2 amps and a digital processor), but are also designed for against wall performance.

I've been thinking about this issue in part for my desktop system. I built my own 2-way monitors, but the little digital amp I bought is seriously underpowered, plus it's really inconvenient to switch cables for headphones vs. speakers.

So I'm bidding on e-bay for a Parasound Zpre and Zamp. With luck I'll spend around $200 for both, and end up with a 45w/ch rig. The Zpre may be overkill, but I have a logitech touch that is gathering dust. Would be nice to have music here that didn't require the PC to be on.

Also noted, the latest Zpre has a dedicated sub-woofer output. Pretty sweet for a high-end mini sat/sub system.

Best,

E