The best speaker you ever heard?

I have always preferred NOT to "hear the speaker." It should be as transparent as possible and just give me the music as if it were live in the room. Acoustic Research 3a's were tested just such a way with real musicians playing "against" the speakers and real musicians trying to guess which was playing. They couldn't tell. My 3a's have been part of my family since 1969. They'll soon be joined by some AR 9Ls in perfect condition, extremely difficult to find this way and I'm looking forward to getting all this tweaked with good tube amplification [digital conversion to analog.]

Sorry so windy. My first response! Great website!
Cereza

"with real musicians playing "against" the speakers and real musicians trying to guess which was playing. They couldn't tell."

Impressive.
I'd be interested to read about it. Is there a link or article or something you can point to?

Sebrof

I lifted this from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Research

"In the early 1960s, AR conducted a series of over 75 live vs. recorded demonstrations throughout the U.S. in which the sound of a live string quartet was alternated with echo-free recorded music played through a pair of AR-3s. In this “ultimate” subjective test of audio quality, the listeners were largely unable to detect the switch from live to recorded, a strong testament to Acoustic Research's audio quality."

Here's from wiki also: "Prior to the war Edison Records started a marketing campaign, hiring prominent singers and vaudeville performers to perform along side and alternating with Edison records of their performances played on top-of-the-line "Laboratory Model" Edison Diamond Disc Phonographs. At various stages during the performances, all lights in the theater would be darkened and the audience challenged to guess if what they were hearing was live or recorded; accounts often said that much of the audience was astonished when the lights went back up to reveal only the Edison Phonograph on stage."

Interesting. I'd never heard of these Edison "tests."

It'd be interesting also to find out what/who did the recording that AR used...

Keep listening! And thanks for the response...