Best Small Speakers


I am moving into a condo and wanted to get the groups opinion on which speakers you would recommend for small speakers that need a sub. I am thinking about Athena micros, Mirage omnisats, or something similiar. I would like to either mount them on the wall or on stands, walls preffered. Let me know what you guys think. Cost is really not that important.

Thanks,

Mark
acemt
I've had a pair of Proac 1SC's for the past year & they are wonderful. I don't have a huge house & audio setup does double duty in the living room so spouse didn't want huge speakers, hence the Proacs. Mine are being driven by a Simaudio I-5 amp & Eclipse CD player. Precise imaging, will throw decent sound if paired w/ good quality amp/source, & excellent build quality. I've got the yew wood finish & they're beautiful. Some review out there stated that the better you partner the Proac's (amp, source etc), the more revealing the Proac's become & I've found that to be true: the Proacs are only limited in producing better sound by the other components in the chain. That may sound obvious but given their small size, the sound doesn't feel crimped and has only improved as I've surrounded it with other quality components. They won't push through huge bass but standing alone without a sub there's enough bass there in my setup to forget that you need more bass. That said, I'd like to add a REL sub just to get deeper into the music. All in all, I'm very happy with the Proac's. Good luck.
I am also looking, small speaker amp combo paired with mccormack micro pre and velodyne hgs10 that i already have. suggestion please, auditions in san fernando valley or ventura?? considering von schweikert vr-1 with dna .5 or plinius sa50.
We are using three Gallo Due speakers for L/C/R channel and the Micro speakers for the rear channels. A JM Lab/Focal subwoofer completes the system. The Gallo speakers sound very, very good and are quite flexible for mounting purposes. They sound best, of course, on good stands away from walls. They also sound very good on shelves, walls, or ceilings. Used Gallo speakers are an excellent value with a pair of Micros for about 200 and three Dues for less than 1200 (they retailed for 600ea). They came in various colours, too; most were white or black. They are amp friendly in that they are rated at 8 ohms and 92db sensitivity so 30 or 40 good watts is all you need to make big sound.
Get out your grains of salt and/or hip waders - dealer plugging his wares here. You might consider the Omega Super 3R, which uses a modified Fostex full-range driver in an exceptionally inert reflex enclosure. This speaker is fairly high in efficiency (lower 90's) and has a very friendly impedance curve, so you could team it up with a nice little SET amplifier for a very sweet-sounding little package. Not the best for high volume levels (full-range drivers can sound congested at high volume levels with complex music such as full orchestra), but the little Super 3R is the first speaker I've heard in the price ballpark of the Maggie MMG that I think competes with the MMG. The Omega does low-level detail better and is more coherent, while the MMG will play louder and gives a more open presentation due to its dipole nature.

I have a customer who is very happy with his 5-grand floorstanders (which I had sold to him), and I let him try the Super 3R for a few weeks. He almost decided to sell his big speakers and keep the little Omegas. After going back and forth for a while he finally decided to keep his big speakers, but it really was close.

Best of luck in your quest!

Duke