Apartment Dweller's Paradise - The Ideal 2 ch. system?

I would get the small harbeths and a Croft amp or used red wine as suggested. On a smaller budget perhaps powered speakers like Adam pros with a good dac streamer like bluesound or oppo. 

Ideal system for a SMALL space is a headphone system ,
With a little careful buying you can get as good, or better, than the average
10K$ system for a thousand bucks .
And 95% of the population can adjust to "phones. After 3-4 weeks they seem normal .

" Ideal system for a SMALL space is a headphone system ,
With a little careful buying you can get as good, or better, than the average
10K$ system for a thousand bucks .
And 95% of the population can adjust to "phones. After 3-4 weeks they seem normal ."

Great Point "Schubert"

Well, I have a very nice Headphone System in mind as well. And this will be a home and mobile system.

Headphones (1): Focal Clear (Home) -- $2,000.00
Headphones (2): Sennheiser HD-600 (Mobile) -- $300.00
Headphone Amplifier/DAC/DSD: McIntosh MHA-100 -- $2,500.00 (Used)
Phono Preamplifier: PS Audio GCPH -- $500.00 (Used)
Turntable/Arm System: VPI Industries Scout/JMW Memorial Arm -- $2,000.00
Phono Cartridge: Sumiko BPS EVO III -- $550.00
Digital Music Player (Home): BlueSound Vault 2 -- $1,200.00
Digital Music Player (Mobile): Sony NW-WM1A -- $1,200.00

System Total: $10,250.00 + XLR Cables (Home & Mobile System)

--Charles--

I live in a 'over (age) 55' apartment building. This means lots of folks with nothing to do but complain..
My small one bedroom apartment houses my stereo  with Magnepan 3.6 speakers, and two turntables,  a dozen disc spinners, with 4,000 LPs and 2,500 CDs. plus a few thousand DVDs.
The CDS are lining small 'hallway' areas. The DVDs are behind the Maggies. The LPs line two walls of the bedroom.
My Maggies are 42" out from the back wall, and tweets in, so the actual speakers are wider apart.
As one other poster here mentioned, one of the great benefits of Magnepan are the lack of thump going THROUGH the walls.

One other point is listening at lower levels is just as satisfying as blasting the stereo so the folks ten doors down know what you are playing
I think the average audiophile plays music too damn loud, and does so just 'because'. rather than it actually sounds better that way.
The problem is folks who play it loud just are not used to playing it softer. So the moment they hear it played quieter, it sucks. (But given time it becomes the norm and sounds great)
I listen at 50dB most of the time up to 70dB peaks, and 80dB (C weighted) is really LOUD to me.
No one had complained about my playing music, yet I am listening all day every day.

When I go to my local HiFi Salon, they are auditioning the music at 85dB with 95dB peaks. First thing I do it turn it down to audition stuff.

I put my current system of Quad VA-One driving Dynaudio Excite X14’s up against anything out there in a small room...
Even at lower listening levels it still has body and detail...I’ve experimented with plugging the port and putting them against the wall and the room still disappears..Amazing pint size speakers and superbly musical amp with fantastic(although underpowered)headphone circuit...