Good speakers at low volume?

I used to set my Maggies about 4 feet apart, facing each other and lie down between them at 0 dark30. It was like the best headphones I ever had....sound was full/open and perfect.

AudioKinesis, Makes a hi quality loudspeaker in your price range. The design looks to be usable in near field or at low levels. Dukes a great guy to deal with and hes right about hi-med eff designs. Another option is a PHY or large full range driver loudspeaker, no crossovers = easy to drive at low levels, while still sounding full, no need to turn up to get even frequency. I enjoyed stats maggies for many years but dipoles, bi poles designs flood room with SPL sure can sound good at low levels but sound can travel a bit. If low level is to keep from bothering others than maybe not so good. If you just like music played at low levels and don't have others to bother than stats maggies might be worth a listen. With all things. YMMV.

As Duke noted, you're fighting the Fletcher-Munson curve at low volumes.

If you're an apartment dweller going the dynamic "cone" transducer route (assuming a somehat small listening room):

- high efficiency 2 ways

- good small footprint stereo subs designed for music, not ht

- rat shak spl meter

Use the rat shak spl meter to equalize relative volumes of the 2 ways and subs at your preferred listening volume.

I'm not fond of a single sub, as harmonics extend well above 60hz, rendering the subs localizable. If adjacent to your mains, you won't notice if blended well.

It's a bit of a complicated setup, but there's no getting around the reality of how we "hear" at low volumes. It's the loudspeaker paradigm I use, being a low volume listener myself. I have a moderate sized room in a single family home, so can use a 2 way line array for a nice combination of high efficiency and "dynamics" ability.

I've not lived with 'stats, so can't comment on whether they could simplify matters for low volume apartment listening.

Thanks, Johnk.

That PHY driver has a very warm and rich tonal balance, sounds lovely at low and medium levels, will play loud better than most fullrange drivers, and in a good cabinet it would be an excellent choice in your situation. In my experience with that driver, getting the cabinet right is critical to good tonal balance and good articulation. Johnk makes very very good cabinets. This is a very different direction from Dynaudio and Dali, but imho would better serve in this case.

Duke

I was in your position at one point and live in an apt. Look no further than the Gallo's 3.1 ref. Very dynamic, sounds great at low volume and not too big. Had the maggies 12 before and though vocal transparancy sounded amazing, it lacked dynamics.