Speakers for a smaller room/moving issues...


Been looking for apartments/condos/houses to rent in New York as I am moving back there shortly. In other words-- I am moving out of my rental house with its adequately sized listening room/den into a potentially more cramped crib- possibly with neighbors behind an adjoining wall or two.
I've been privy in this search to all kinds of rooms-- small, big, oddly shaped etc. And of course, I am considering all kinds of speakers-- planars (so as not to piss off the upstairs and downstairs neighbors as much as box speakers), smaller monitors in case my room is like 13 by 14 or something and so forth.
Alright already- I'll come out with it! I guess what I really want to ask forum members doesnt exactly pertain to a particular speaker rec at all--
Rather, when you guys move, or for that matter, when you chose your current home or apartment, was your 'listening room' a primary consideration?
I mean, my realtor barely understands my needs in this regard and seems a bit miffed at this point regarding my 'listening room neurosis.'
But what can I do? Move into a small condo and buy a Hello Kitty boombox? What did YOU do? (And DONT say "gave up the hobby"-- otherwise you wouldnt be reading this in the first place! Clever, eh?!)

PS- Jaybo, I love your 2 or 3 word answers; please feel free to participate multiple times!

abramsmatch
Actually-- I'll be renting on Long Island, as that's where work is taking me. Soooooo.... I wont have to deal with a 4th floor walk-up or what-have-you, nor are there many 'pre-war' buildings. Most I have seen are newish (10-20 years old) and knocking on the walls makes me fear that even at lower levels my neighbors will be enjoying my hobby along with me. (and I theirs-- whatever it may be!)
But yes-- the Dyns and the LS3/5A's are in the running (havent owned either-- I owned the original standmounted countours-- great tone and punch! I also owned the harbeth Compact 7 ES 2's -- too polite/midrangy for my tastes).
MrJstark, your room certinly looks smallish-- smaller than the ones I am looking at and that, my brother, gives me hope! you look happy as a clam in there with those Vandys. What are the dimensions of that finely tuned/treated rectangle of yours?
Abramsmatch,
actually my room is in the "L" shape. I own that house, so there are no problems with grumpy neighbors. There is one tenant in this building but his choices are very limited - stay and accept it or leave.
Overall dimensions of my space are approximately:
19feet long by 15feet wide. However one of the corners is taken by small bathroom which is 6X7 feet. You are right it is on the small side but given a 100% freedom from my other half - I can do whatever I want and not worrying about WAF. Quatros are awesome for two reasons:
1. They sound great
2. Flexibility in setup and room (bass) EQ. (maybe you should give them a shot???)

My second system inclueds:
AAD 2001 monitors
RWA 30 integrated amp-Omega Zebra-wood version
Dodd preamp
Consonance Droplet 5.0

Very satisfying system - death quiet, great bass, quick and fluid when needed, very articulated and real.
Contrary to the above I wouldn't recommend Ls3/5a's or equivilant for small room low volume listening. They are a great speaker when played at a given volume, but they are not low volume champs. I've had the original's, stirling's and the spendor SE's. Loved them all, but didn't satisfy my low volume requirements. Live in NYC with a wife and son (21 months).

2 speakers I can recommend are the devore gibbon 8's or the omega xrs's. Both will give you much more of the music with better dynamics at low volumes. I have modded my omega's with a fountek ribbon tweeter which improved them further at low volumes but that was a time consuming trial and error process - not for everyone. The devores were designed for smaller room listening and are front ported.

Oh yeah, I don't think maggies are great low volume speakers either.
With respect to "compromising in terms of a listening room size", I stand by my original response.

The key to getting good sound within a small room is 1) recognizing the issues with the room, 2) addressing those issues with the room, and 3) designing a system that is synergistic with the realities of that room.)

Unless you are designing and building a listening space, all rooms are going to suck (or perhaps I should say "are less than ideal") in one way or another. When I first started to design a system for my current listening space (which is far less than ideal) I was told to invest in a headphone system, which, incidentally, is the extreme answer to your second issue - the 'neighbor noise factor'. I wasn't particularly interested in this option.

So, I approached the challenge from the room backwards:

Where would I be sitting?
Where will the system be placed?
Where will the speakers go (approximately)?
Where are the first reflection points?
Where can I put bass traps?
Will there be a rug?
EtcÂ…

An appropriately-treated room with also help with the 'neighbor noise factor'.

Then I started to evaluate my component options. I chose monitor speaker that are time / phase aligned, and that sound excellent at low volumes, but can also rock. I didn't want floor standing speakers because I wanted to control the level, phase and crossover of the low end due to the nasty nodes in my room).

I chose an integrated that also sounded good at low volumes (and still can rock) and doubled-down into 4 Ohms. The rest of my choices support the design philosophies I desire in my equipment (that may or may not be relevant to you).

Bottom line, you can get satisfying sound in a challenging room (or with neighbors in an adjoining space). You just have to consider the space itself before selecting components. However, I may be misunderstanding the advice you seek.
Pfornt, i use my ls35a's for hours at time in my small office. I have never had an issue and in some way i prefer it to my reference rig.

However, i may understand where you are coming from if you are using a lower powered amp. I found in low volume situations, the weight of 100 wpc is "mo bettter" then the prior 17 watt amp i used