What is a really good sounding low volume system??

I use a PL2 with Ascend Acoustic Sierra Monitors. Sounds very good at low volumes. Rega RS1 are good speakers at low volumes, as well. You will get quality sound, just not all the audio niceties.

I am president of my coop with a spouse who can hear mice peeing on wool, so I do not play my music at anything more than low volumes, with the occasional foray to mid level volumes on a weekday afternoon when no one is at home.

Save your cash for a bigger place. Don't place your electronics on the common wall, that is common courtesy.

Rich

I'll use headphones and some cheap PC sound system. You can also get Samson active studio monitors specifically designed for the low-volume music. My headphone choice is Beyerdynamic T70 will have no compromise to HD800 for a fraction of price.

Unfortunately, the best sounding systems at low volume are horn systems that are also physically big in size so they create other placement problems. There are other somewhat bass restricted higher efficiency systems that also sound pretty good at lower volume.

Dipole speakers are also great for keeping sound levels down outside of the primary listening area. Such speakers, like quad electorstatics, tend to focus sound within the listening area they are aimed at, so that there is MUCH less sound spilling outside of the listening area (the out of phase front and back signal cancel at the sides, large panels tend to have less fall off of soundlevel with distance than speakers that are closer to being point sources).

I have owned large panel electrostatics (Martin Logan) so I can personally say that they are much better than conventional dynamics in reducing the amount of sound outside of the listening area.

Once you spend some time listening at lower volumes, you'll be surprised at how soon you adjust to it. I've had (and still do) some time off due to an injury and I now listen at lower levels than I thought possible and still get the satisfaction.

You won't be able to tell what is missing or lacking until your hearing adjusts so do the waiting and critical listening before you change out anything. It should only take a couple of weeks before you narrow down your search for that "right" component.

My first take on what would be necessary is to seek out (if you don't have one already) a high efficiency speaker that doesn't take much to "come on strong". That would lead to a smaller (less powerful) amp which generally sound better than the big brutes out there.

You have a long, quiet road ahead of you. Enjoy,

All the best,
Nonoise

Panel speakers is a good suggestion, and yes there are incredible headphones out there. I love my HiFiMan HE-5LEs (though they need some power-they actually sell an adaptor so you can hook them or the HE-6s up to your speaker amp).

I might also suggest going with a full range driver model, or something high efficiency. Their less complicated crossovers and lack of need for loads of power, translates into good detail at low volumes IME.