Speakers for a smaller room/moving issues...

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?
Etc…

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

Kbuzz,

Power may be the key then, as I was using a lower powered tube amp to drive them(15watt shindo montille). Also, I have to admit that it's not my preference, but some of the only listening I can do are at late nite, ultra low volumes which is challenging for most speakers. I know I should be a headphone user but still prefer the speaker experience - can't get around it.