The Sierras are rear ported, so I don't think they'll work too well with the speakers being so close to the wall. Keep in mind that this is a very small studio apartment that I'm anticipating will be around 300 sq ft total and I have to fit an entertainment center, bed, couch, etc in there.
I'd consider a small sub with some small monitors if people think this will be a better setup for listening at low volumes vs. a speaker which goes low enough to be enjoyable for most music (40 Hz?).
I'll start with the subwoofer - this is exactly where a small sealed sub like an Emotiva makes sense. They don't dig low but the bass is so clean. I have their
Ultra 12 and they really don't have much output below 30hz and I think it might be the perfect choice. They make a smaller
10" but I haven't heard that one and I'd probably spend the extra $60 as future-proofing but that's just me - the Overkill Kid
. You can make your sub even more neighbor friendly by putting it on a
SubDude (or maybe 4 of
these) to keep it isolated from the floor.
I'll toss out two speaker choices. The first is the
Sierra-1. Ascend sells a port plug that all but eliminates anything from the port and makes them act like a sealed speaker. I use them with the plugs in my bedroom and they sound great. With the plugs in you'll crossover to the sub at 60hz.
A second far cheaper ($400/pr) choice is
Usher's S-520. It's not in the same league as the Sierra-1 but it's a nice small 8ohm front ported speaker with a good clean sound. It's major weakness is that they can't deal with high output (the woofer can bottom) - but that's not a problem in your case. I'd cross these over at 80hz. Unfortunately should you decide to add a center later the matching center is 4ohm.
Comparing the above, the Usher's highs roll off a bit before the standard Sierra-1. The more future-proof Sierra-1's highs roll off a tiny bit early for my taste but if you can order the new NrT tweeter version or do the upgrade yourself they are pretty darn fantastic and these will still be viable if/when you eventually move to larger quarters. That said all of the above are pretty darn good.
You may also want to
research methods to reduce sound transmission through the TV wall. There's a wealth of information on that site and maybe there's something that you'll find useful.