The best speaker you ever heard?


In my opinion, the speaker is by far the most important part of the audio system. After all, it is the only part you hear. OK, the other stuff really matters a lot, but without a great speaker... No go.

I am a bit 'speaker-obsessed' I guess, and now I am wondering: What are the best speakers you have ever heard, and what made them the best?
njonker
Looking back at this thread, I wonder at the validity of my suggestion(s). Speakers, being at the end of the chain, are definitively system dependent -- apart from their inherent engineering quality, ofcourse.

I wonder whether I have really *heard* giga speakers I have listened to play at their utmost... (commensurate source, pre, power, etc). At the end of the day, I think not.

To do justice to the thread, I should revise my post from months back to read: speakers I have heard playing better the best tunes I remember" -- i.e. NOT the BEST, just better than my personal (benchmark) system.

Cheers!
Apogee .... all of the Apogee full range ribbons are frontrunners, but the Diva, followed by a Duetta Sig, cross the finish line first.
According to Greg's suggestions, which I find excellent, I should have mentioned the Acapella Exaliburs.
I am intimately familiar with the Wisdom 75's, both in their original and second generation. They are not an easy speaker to find an amp for. The woofers are very current hungry and the planars are quite revealing of amp character. Well set up and properly driven, they can create a huge layered stage and be quite dynamic with thunderous lows, at least above 30 hz. Having said this, I have yet to hear a pair that has the delicacy, immediacy and transparency of a well set up pair of Quads being driven by a good tube amp. This does not mean that the Quads are better or worse, only that they have very different strengths and weaknesses and that neither is perfect.