Best speakers for my system/taste/budget?

GR Research Paradox speakers have been raved about on the AudioAsylum (www.audioasylum.com) ... if you assemble and finish them yourself they will cost around $400. Finished price is less than $500 factory direct. They look beautiful and feature good quality drive units. Search on Google or other engines for the GR Reasearch site.

Good luck!

Excellent advice above. Another option: Audio Physics "Step" without their sub. Should be around $500; less, used/demo w/stands. A friend even "tweaked" these with good results!

Spica Tc-60 (I own Angelus and the imaging is excellent).
Epos ES-11 (older version of M12) another good imager.
The venerable ls3/5 minimonitor is a good apartment spkr. I'm not sure of the used price in the US.

Assuming you stretch to a good standmount at this stage the subwoofer route (e.g. a used REL) would offer tremendous sound quality if you can escape the apartment in the future.

I'd suggest you consider Maggies, possibly the little MMG's. Let me explain:

For a given sound pressure level at the listening position, a dipole will put 5 dB less bass out into the environment. That means you can listen 5 dB louder before your neighbor starts banging on the ceiling.

In addition, Maggies are utterly boxless and have very nice timbre. You can tailor the top-end by using resistors (supplied). Maggies are voiced warm and forgiving, and while there are other speakers that do a better job of pinpoint imaging, Maggies give you a very good sense of acoustical space (ambience).

Maggies aren't perfect, but they do a very good job with many of the things you value. You didn't mention this, but Maggies have fewer annoying little colorations that remind you you're only listening to speakers. To me, that's a big part of being able to close your eyes teleport to the performance.

Best of luck in your search.

Agree with Seandtaylor99 about the LS3/5a, with the only question being your taste for rock. Also, they tend to go for around $800 here and on ebay (I have 2 pairs of the original Rogers 15-ohm type, so I tend to notice).

I recently picked up a used pair of Spendor S3/5s used for $600, which I think might actually beat the LS3/5as. Slightly warmer sound, soundstage a little deeper and fuller on the bottom. Think you'd like the top. Need stands, as several of the other recommendations do, so have to factor them in to your budget. There's a very favorable review on the EnjoytheMusic.com site.