we like Soft water also, so I bought a "waterstick" water softener. It is a conventional resin based softener reasonably compact. Takes about 15 minutes to recharge with table salt. The downside is capacity, less than the ones CW etc. sell, but the price is right, and it is also available in a version that will remove some iron. We've had ours now for almost 3 years and it's perfect for us. In places with really hard water we can get a weeks worth of use out of it.
It's capacity if about 1500grains, which is less than the bigger units but still good for about 100 gallons up to 500 gallons of water depending on hardness.
www.watersticks.com
They often have them posted on ebay as well.