Advice from apartment dwellers

Keith - the room itself is rather large by NYC standards (overall it's about 26 X 12), but it's a grand room that will be divided into sections. The listening area itself, which will be partitioned off, will be about 14X12 or so...though the divider will be open to the room. Whitecap, thanks for the explanation...my apartment building isn't one likely to attract investors, so I'll have actual people living around me. Makes for more interesting pot lucks, provided I don't alienate them sonically. I'll play this one conservatively, as the woman next door makes a mean eggplant parmesan. Interesting Phasecorrect - thanks for the tip...indeed on the "bargain" speakers that caught my eye was an old B&W CDM1-SE, which appear to be a good value used and don't take up much space. Melbguy, I will keep you posted. Decisions soon. Thanks again!

I would jump on those cdm 1se...they used a tweeter derived from.801 matrix...orig non se voted European loudspeaker of the year...Stereophilerave review...curious...under $500?

Hi Phase - no, north of that...ergo the hesitation. They are routinely fetching $850+ these days by my research, which puts them in another territory (considering they're a 13-year-old+ speaker).

I realize that dipole panel speakers are somewhat hard to place in many rooms, particularly smaller rooms. But, in terms of not bothering neighbors, dipoles are dramatically better than conventional dynamic speakers. The out-of-phase cancellation to the sides of the speaker means that there is substationally less sound radiating to the sides, with a higher concentration of sound directed toward the sweet spot of the listening area. When I went from Martin Logan electrostatic/dynamic speaker to a horn-based system, I was surprised by how much louder the stray sound outside of the listening room is with the horn-based system (and horns are supposedly pretty good at focussing the sound at the listening area).

Interesting Larryi...I was very impressed with Clayton Shaw's new Hologram M1s at this year's RMAF, which features a dipole bass driver. They have a little brother (the M2) that would be more appropriate for my space. Does dipole really make that much of a difference in this regard? Any other dipoles you can recommend?