The best speaker you ever heard?

Genesis 300

Orion speakers (made either by a kit or by Wood Artistry in California). These speakers were designed by Dr. Sigfried Linkwitz, a former HP engineer, and are an open baffle design. I have listened to them for quite some time now and have not experienced the level of depth and clarity in any other speaker system. Music is my passion and I have listened to a great deal of live concerts; the Orions come closest to realizing the true concert experience.

Past experience leads me to question whether you can separate the performance of the amplifier driving the speaker from the speaker. Case in point, the substitution of the balanced Audio Note Kegons for a pair of Parasound JC-1's has led me to re-evaluate how good the speakers are.

Excellent point, after going to something like the CES its clear that you can't separate the speaker from other components unless you are probably the designer, or you are intimately familiar with all components and you are a room acoustic expert... and even then!

The last two commentators give too much credit to components other than the speakers. Most well designed preamplifiers and amplifiers sound very much the same with essentially no input offered by interconnects. Most sound engineers would tell you that the quality of the recording, the listening environment (ie. the room) and the speakers are the main determinants of sound quality. I doubt that most people could really hear the difference between a $2,000 cd player and one for $200.