Basic system for living room

Do these need to actually sit in a bookshelf or on stands/floorstanders sitting with a little free space around them?How big a room is the listening room?How far away from the speakers will you be sitting?

Do you prefer digital
music? Library of digital files? Computer as source? Will you stream music? How about analog? Turntable and record albums? What kind of music? Jazz and acoustic or pop and rock? Classical? Size of room? Remote access important?
There are infinite choices but providing more info can lead to more refined suggestions.

 The room measures 20 x 40‘. The speakers will be on the shorter side and next to grand piano. I will primarily be listening to classical, jazz and some light pop. Once again this will be at a low volume since will be primarily sitting and talking in this room. The music will be streamed through  my phone, Sonos and computer. I will hook up a CD player do this. No records. 
Thanks

Get a custom pair from Fritz. Let him know you need them tuned specifically for a bookshelf.

http://www.fritzspeakers.com/

He can whip something up out of quality parts for about that much.  At the last audio show I went to, the musicians I talked to rated his speakers among best of the show. Me too.

Best,

E

I should point out, if you get it and it's not bright enough, Fritz can alter that. One of the nice things about getting a custom pair.

You might want to look into the Belles Aria Integrated and a pair of Ryan 610 speakers or the small Harbeth’s.  This system meets your criteria for price and listening concerns. If you are near Verona, NJ you can listen to this system at the Audio Connection. Ryan’s like Harbeth, are one of the few speakers that sound good at low volumes. I personally like the Harbeth’s better,  but the Ryan’s match your treble requirements better than the Harbeth’s . Good luck!

If you are looking to buy new I would recommend the Outlaw RR2160 integrated amp/reciever. I had been searching for an easy to use integrated for my wife to stream digital files in our living room used mostly for background music. After auditioning a few amps from Hegel and Peachtree, I settled on the Outlaw driving a pair of Proac Studio 3’s.

For the $799 price tag, it has a lot going for it including bass management, multiple digital and analog connections, DLNA streaming and it sounds fantastic.

With your budget of 2k, I would think a used pair of Kef ls50’s or the recommended Ryan r610’s (I have owned these and they are great) and the Outlaw would make a fine system and you may have a little bit of money left over for some decent stands and cabling.

One thing I did that made a nice improvement was replace the stock power cord with a Zu Mission and the amp/preamp jumpers with Kimber PBJ’s.

Best of luck with your search and enjoy your new system!

Quad Z-1 or Z-2 (see Underwood) + Belles Aria.

I like the Parasound Integrated amp and whichever bookshelf speakers you might like. Listening is everything. Brands I would audition are Paradigm, Monitor Audio, KEF, B&W, and many others. If you get the amp new, you could buy a pair of speakers second hand and get something special. B&W would be one I would look at-  like 805. If you have the floor space the new Magnepan MMGi with the mid-bass module would sound tremendous.

Belles Aria. Also some great prices on Hegel H160 now that it's been replaced...

I concur on the Belles Aria.  I lived with the Parasound Halo Integrated for 1 1/2 years.  Then Johnny R at Audio Connection played a Belles Aria Integrated and the sound totally blew me away.  I couldn't believe the quality of the sound for the $$.

I have a system in my dining room that I am very happy with and find that one of its greatest strengths is exactly what you are looking for: the ability to play clearly and well at low volume. It also has the advantage of being very small and easy to place: a Bluesound Powernode2 with the Bluesound Duo small speaker/sub combination. This would fit into your budget. While on their own, the components may not be particularly remarkable, I think that Paul Barton has tweaked the speakers and the Powernode (which was nowhere near powerful enough to drive my Spendor BC1s) to work a little magic. That magic is particularly evident on MQA files streamed over Tidal.
Alternately, the new Elac Debut B6.2s paired with Elac's Element EA101EQ-G Integrated Amplifier/DAC sounded awfully good together at the Montreal audio show and would leave you with enough money left over to get an Elac Debut S10EQ subwoofer (which adjusts for room acoustics) AND a Bluesound Node 2 streamer (if you are interested in MQA or possibly a SQ upgrade from Sonos). The new Elac speakers have front-facing ports and should be easier to position near a wall.  Once again, I think that this system benefits from the fact that Andrew Jones designed them to sound good together. Good luck!

Goldenear T7's ($1400) and Rega Brio Amp ($995) and money to spend on good cables and power management.