Speaker for low volume listening with high WAF


It's that time of life when the large home is no longer needed and a New Orleans French Quarter condo is more exciting. So I'll be saying good-bye to my Wilson watt puppy 7's, wonderful "Big Mac" MC2000 (get the tubes right and this amp is incredible), Hovland HP100, Dodson DAC, Sony SCD-1, Lector CDP 7TL and mucho other stuff I spent years perfecting with tube rolling. Now I'm looking for a very good speaker system that will complement a Luxman L-590AII integrated amp along with a single box cd player. I don't particularly like speakers that are overly warm but prefer accuracy, clarity, wide soundstaging and musical dynamics which the watt pup 7's serves up with the right equipment. I would be interested in hearing from others who live in smaller spaces and share a similar musical taste and bought speakers that mirror my musical taste. Prior to the watt pups (I've owned the 6 & 7's) I had ML Prodigy and Quad ESL 63 stats (fast & transparent but low WAF).
rickjames
I do not know your budget, or really the "unique elegant look" you need to deal with, or just what kind of size constraints you are dealing with, but if I were in your shoes, I would definitely take a look at the new "mini Magnepans" which got rave-y reviews at CES this year (try googling 'CES 2009 Magnepan mini'). The combination of their speaker units and the matching subwoofer (which looks little like a speaker) may be pretty small (almost too small for audiophile expectations) but enough people whose opinions I have come to respect are impressed that I would be seek out a chance to audition them.
Try to listen to a pair of Wilson Duettes. Chances are you might be impressed
You'll be sorry. Once you been to wilsonland, nothing will work. So, I guess you will be joining the headphone crowd. My sympathies.
I recently heard the Raidho Ayra C1.0 mini monitors. IMO, they fall into the "must audition class" if you have, space considerations, sufficient power and the budget. Ignore the 85W minimum recommendation for amps, they need power.
Sorry, the minimum amp recommendation is 50 Watts. I listened to them with 85W and thought that was insufficient to take control of the extraordinary base level that these small speakers are capable of producing.