The Best Speakers for Small Spaces

The Monitor Audio R90HD Mini-Monitors will deceive the eyes, but not the ears. They're small enough to be virtually invisible, but with their fine finish, you'll want them to place them where they can be easily seen and appreciated. I heartily recommend them for a small stereo system in a bedroom or den or as speakers for an executive system.

Priced at $249 each the Episode LCR-4 speakers are an excellent value, especially as a complement to a flat panel television or even a video projection screen. They're good enough that your local big-box retailer would probably prefer you didn't know about them. They sound good with music sources, but their real strength is movie and television sound. 

The Focal Dome is a satellite-subwoofer system that has excellent sound performance, takes little space and offers multiple placement options. The Focal Dome system consists of five spherically shaped die-cast aluminum alloy satellite speakers accompanied by a sleek-looking dome-shaped subwoofer.

With speakers, you never know what you're going to get until you listen. The Mordaunt-Short Carnival 2 speakers reproduce music with an uncommon, delicate finesse and transparency typically found in speakers costing much more, which makes them an exceptional value. In fact, the Carnival 2s may be one of the best-kept secrets in recent memory.

The Vector V10 and VW8 system is a very reasonably priced and stylish speaker system, especially as a complement to a wall-mounted flat-screen television. Add the Vector V20 center channel speaker for use with a home theater system. As a stereo system, I found them to be brighter than I prefer in a speaker, but judge for yourself. The Vector system would work well in a medium-sized listening room.