Hi -
Had a similar requirement with a real focus on minimum size for a boat - ended up with NSM speakers - check for the sales and specials:
http://www.nsmaudio.com/brochures/10sbroc.html
Really tremendous for the size and the upaginst the wall in the corner placement only helps the bass.
As noted, front ported or acoustic suspension is the must. Also on my shortlist were the Spendor S3/5 (the classsic), NHT 2 and 3, and also the Epo 3 and 5. Certainly the Spendor and the NSM are less then super efficient so they need a bit of grunt to get them going.
If space is at a premium and tubes is the deal, go with one of the Chinese integrateds - Sophia, Cayin etc. Just be mindful of the heat.
And of course if you really want to downsize, its time to rip all your CDs to a hard drive, and get a SLIM Devices Squeezebox - pop for a mod from Bolder or RedWine Audio - and skip the whole CD/DAC/SPDIF chain entirely plus make more room in your bookshelves by storing the CDs because you will never need them again except as back-ups.
http://www.slimdevices.com/
Also lots on the whole hard drive PC thing here:
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/bbs.html
Had a similar requirement with a real focus on minimum size for a boat - ended up with NSM speakers - check for the sales and specials:
http://www.nsmaudio.com/brochures/10sbroc.html
Really tremendous for the size and the upaginst the wall in the corner placement only helps the bass.
As noted, front ported or acoustic suspension is the must. Also on my shortlist were the Spendor S3/5 (the classsic), NHT 2 and 3, and also the Epo 3 and 5. Certainly the Spendor and the NSM are less then super efficient so they need a bit of grunt to get them going.
If space is at a premium and tubes is the deal, go with one of the Chinese integrateds - Sophia, Cayin etc. Just be mindful of the heat.
And of course if you really want to downsize, its time to rip all your CDs to a hard drive, and get a SLIM Devices Squeezebox - pop for a mod from Bolder or RedWine Audio - and skip the whole CD/DAC/SPDIF chain entirely plus make more room in your bookshelves by storing the CDs because you will never need them again except as back-ups.
http://www.slimdevices.com/
Also lots on the whole hard drive PC thing here:
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/bbs.html