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
Tom, as I recall, the Dahlquists just had wooden feet. I don't recall any effort to control vibrations, but that was a long time ago. Were you a dealer back then?
I have enjoyed many of these speakers folks are talking about. I heard the Vandersteen 7's again yesterday driven by Audio Research 10k stereo amp and their matching preamp. Nothing special for that price range. It was through the Romulus CD players (best digital I've ever heard) and I was in shock as to how good it was again. I've heard it with the Ayre monos as well as AR ref in the past and each time it just sounded perfect. Lacked nothing. I would love to hear it with the producers of some of the music I was listening to.I'd love to know how close to their original it is because it takes on the sound of everything upstream. I"m pretty familiar with the products I heard and the Vandys were just right scale, pace, tonally etc... They just sounded the way music sounds when you are there.
Norm

The Nextel paint finish and the flocking material on the entire front speaker baffle are control materials. Both materials seal a bad sounding mdf cabinet from venting its form of bad sound into a listening room. These 2 materials sonically made these same speakers disappear. I thought highly of Jon looking for something different than the standard solution. This was circa 1984. Tom
Tom, my experience was between 1976 and 1978 so I guess we are talking about different speakers.
I have it now and doubt if I'll ever change it. I already replaced woofers once(loved to crank'em hard when I was a-bit younger:-)).