Which speaker is the master of IMAGING ????

I currently use both Parsifal Encores and Merlin VSM SEs in 2 different systems. Both are excellent at imaging. Neither can match the little ProAc Super Tablettes I heard 20 years ago, which offered the most tangible presentation of depth I can recall. Of course, the Pro Acs were almost unlistenable in their forward balance and very tough to mate with a sub. However, on imaging alone, they were the best I've heard.

I would also note that, under the right circumstances, any number of planar loudspeakers (I've heard great soundstaging/imaging from Soundlab, Maggies, Acoustat, and Apogee) can startle in this regard. The room and listening position were always critical, though.

The one, the only...

CARAVELLE.

PS

(Just kidding.)

Despite the bashing in another thread, the Wilson Watt Puppies image pretty well.

Best imaging I have heard is the Thiel 7.2. I own them, so may be biased, but I keep looking to upgrade, and have not found anything that casts images like 7.2s.

So what makes a speaker image well?

I first have to say that for those who want to take this with a grain of salt, so be it - I'm a part of Fried Products...

However, luckily, before he died, Bud Fried gave me his longtime personal loudspeakers - C/4 satellites with O subwoofers, and they are without a doubt the best imaging speakers I have EVER been around. Of course, they are a one off pair, and all of the drivers were custom built to his own specification. And, the crossovers were tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until it sounded right to him.

I used to think it was the time alignment/minimum baffle of the truncated pyramids that are the C sats, but experience has proven to me that the REAL secret is the series crossover. A close friend and I talk a lot, and through experimentation the series crossover just provides such superior imaging that it's flat out uncanny. At one juncture, while I was listening, I jumped up because I heard the phone ringing several yards behind me - it was the music! And, my listening position is right up against the back wall. Talk about one of those jaw dropping moments - I was flat out dumbfounded!

The Dynaudio Evidence playing Vangelis' Opera Sauvage had notes floating in the room like soap bubbles. Not my all time favorite speakers, but the imaging was killer with the right source. As it should be for their megabuck flagship.