I'm sorry, I can't give any specifics about the current audio scene, as I just don't know. While I've read lots of hi-fi magazines, mainly in the 80s & 90s and understand all the principles, I've never gone out and splashed big money on hi-fi. The most expensive piece of hi-fi was a Denon 3 head cassette deck (DR-M 33HX) way back in 1986 for a cool £300 (a nuts purchase in hindsight).
I'm kinda like you in going for bang for buck components, hence those used B&W speakers. As long as the sound is clear, with good bass and treble and without too much coloration from the speakers, I'm happy. In fact, you could call me an audiophile's nightmare: I've always liked punchy dance and electronic music. This sounds
so much better with the bass and treble turned up high! I don't give a shit about a 'balanced' sound, just as long as it's pleasing to my ears.
In fact, my little Aiwa amp (just 30W RMS per channel) has a special bass boost button called Dynamic Super Loudness (DSL) that adds serious punch* to bass and with bassy speakers and the right music, it can really make the room pound and shake!
Luckily, my Creative X-Fi ExtremeMusic sound card has a similar function and this version has adjustable gain! Yeah, audiophiles hate me.
Yes, I do live in an apartment, but I'm also happy wearing headphones. Speakers and headphones both have their pros and cons and one isn't really better than the other, just very different listening experiences.
*I had an oscilloscope many years ago and I tried to figure out how this DSL circuit actually achieved its effect, because the bass still sounds natural, but now you can really hear and feel it and the speaker cones move a lot more. It's sort of like breast enlargement for bass.
Anyway, I put a pure 50Hz sine wave through the speakers and viewed the waveform on the oscilloscope, carefully noting it's amplitude. I then turned on DSL and brought the amplitude back down to its previous level. The result? The bass still sounded deeper, even though the waveform looked the same. So heck, I dunno how it pulls off this trick, but it's awesome.