Right now, the bongo is my main instrument. If you are looking to save money, I would advise you to get a decent set of shells and hardware, and swap out the heads for something better than factory spec — the mass produced bongos almost all have lousy heads.
I have seen few bongos below $200 that are worth the money, and even on $200+ mass-produced bongos the heads usually need to be replaced (the quality of the heads on those Pearl Primero bongos looks atrocious). If you are planning to play them with your fingers, you really want a good pair of heads to get all the sounds. If you just want an extra voice for your drum kit, and you are planning to play them with sticks, maybe not. Meinl bongos seem to have great build quality, but on most of their models you can't rotate the lugs, which is uncomfortable if you play them between your legs. An exception is their Luis Conte model which is built the traditional way, but the heads are the usual crummy factory spec.
Make sure that the bongo has good hardware, as the macho (the small drum) needs to be put under a lot of tension, and then loosened after every playing session to protect the leather from humidity/temperature changes. All this tightening and loosening can wear out the hardware pretty quick.
At the congaplace forum you can find info about where to get good natural heads. Remo synthetic heads are an option, especially for the high drum, but many people don't like the sound and feel — listen and try before you buy.
Another option is a bongo-cajon:
Schlagwerk makes a pair of all wooden bongo-cajones that sound great, but I haven't tried them in person and I imagine they don't have much projection compared to regular bongos. However, no heads or hardware to worry about, they're cheap, and they'd be a quiet option for playing in an apartment.
http://www.schlagwerk.com/english/cajinto_yambu/cajinito_yambu.php
I'd steer clear of the Meinl bongo-cajones though, I have a pair and they aren't as responsive to the different finger techniques as I had hoped, perhaps because of the rubber wood that they use. I think other manufacturers spec birch, alder, or other, more expensive woods for their cajones.
