BEST LOW VOLUME FULL RANGE SPEAKERS?

I am in a similar situation and listen to the same types of music. My roon is a little larger, but I listen to music late at night after everyone goes to sleep. Every once and a while on the weekends I get a chance to listen a higher volume--which is fun! I went through a number of speakers and finially landed on a pair of Verity Audio Fidelio's. I find them to be so true to the music--these speakers will pull you in and make you feel like you are sitting about ten rows back. The soundstage is very deep and layered and the detail at low volume to my ears is exceptional. There are speakers that will make you think you are sitting in the first row, but to my ears they sound a little compressed. The rest of my system is a Cary V-12R with the oil cap upgrade and an Audio Aero Capitol mk2 CDP.Hope this helps, it is just one persons opinion, and there are sure to be many. Let your ears make the finial call!

Nrchy has a very valid point, which is that the ear is much less sensitive to bass than to midrange especially at low volume levels. A 20 or 30 Hz tone at 60 dB is inaudible. At 80 dB a 30 Hz tone is audible, but a 20 Hz tone is only barely audible. I'm not sure what you mean by "low volume", but it's quite possible that the extra money you spend to get down to 20 Hz will be pretty much wasted.

As far as speakers that excel in articulation at low volume levels, traditionally electrostats and high efficiency systems do very well in this area. Unfortunately, I don't know of any suitably small electrostatic or high efficiency speakers that offer the kind of bass extension you're asking for.

One of the things to watch out for is this: Often the drivers in a given multiway loudspeaker have differing power compression characteristics. The designer has probably adjusted their relative loudness levels to sound best at medium to high volume levels, but this may be at the expense of good tonal balance at very low volume levels. Have you ever noticed that some speakers sound great at medium-high volume levels, overly bright at very high levels, and dull and lifeless at very low volume levels? These are symptoms of the tweeter having less power compression than the woofer.

The most articulate low-level speaker I know of is the Sound Lab line of full-range electrostats (which I peddle - surprise, surprise). The M-3 is the smallest, but the A-3 is better looking. If either might interest you let me know, as I have access to some used but fully refurbished pairs at very attractive prices. www.soundlab-speakers.com

Best of luck in your quest!

Duke

I remember reading a review a couple or years ag in The Absolute Sound about a speaker from Dali that the reviewer said had incredible low level sound quality. I'll try and find it today and tell you the model.

JHWalker the reason for my annoyance was that all caps is ALOT harder to read, but I just figured you didn't care about those from whom you wanted help.

Look into the Von Schweikerts dB99. They are a high efficiency speaker which tend to work well at low volumes, they look pretty cool and they have built in subs to dial the bass up to your tastes. I have never heard them, but have read good things about them. I would also suggest some high efficiency designs to do what you want. I have some older klipsch speakers. They are 100dB efficient and excel at low volume with nice impactful bass.