Personal speaker evolution

Cerwin Vegas -> Apogee Stages -> B&W 801 IIIs.
Great thread. All 3 were/are great. Cerwin Vegas - good punch, but lacked finesse. Apogee Stages sounded amazing only if the listener were in the tiny sweet spot. B&W 801's may lack the highest degree of fine resolution, but they sound great in almost all situations and music. It will be hard for me to trade these beauties in...

Ampeg SVT cabinet (8 10-inch speakers:played bass in bands as well as hooking stereo up to it), Small Advents, Klipsch Forte's, Unity Audio Signature 1's.

Ok..herer goes first time spilling my guts.
Studiocraft 440's
OHM F's
DCM Time Windows
JBL 100's
Polk 7's/Large Advents
then
Vandersteen 1'c
Vandersteen 2ce
Proac Response 2s
Larry

My speaker history from the eighties to now:
1) self made 2 way, ScanSpeak drivers
2) kit speaker, ScanSpeak
3) Martin Logan Aerius-i, new
4) Merlin VSM-SE + BBAM, new
5) Von Schweikert VR3HSE Gen III, new
6) HGP Lyra SoNova (www.hgpaudio.com), new
7) Tidal Audio Contriva (www.tidal-audio.de), new

3-7) all impressed me for the price, or I would not have bought them :-)

The Tidal Contriva is my current speaker and I don't see any changes coming, as it combines the strenght of the speakers I owned before and outperforms them overall significantly.

I started with 2 way speakers I built myself, ScanSpeak drivers in a very ugly box I put together, no crossover, just a cap for the tweeter. They sounded - well, interesting :-)I then took out the drivers and bought a kit with a crossovers for those drivers, did not convince either, but worked for a student budget. The ML Aerius-i was the first speakers I got when I had a job, so I could afford to listen and choose. They were great for the money in my opinion. The Merlin was very special too, but too small after a move. The von Schweikert were really good for the money, but not in all aspects up to the strong points of the Merlin. The HGP I got for a really good price and hoped to get the bass of the VS and the resolution of the Merlin. It got some of it but not all. Enter the Tidal Contriva, I am still marveling at this speakers performance everytime I listen to music. For me a dream come true!

I'm lucky to remember the speakers, let alone the prices. My speaker history:

1) Epicure (don't know the model-they were double sided about 24-26" high)
2) Audio Project (Bose 901 knockoffs) Hated them
3) B&W DM 1400's
4) B&W 802 Series III
5) B&W 801 Series III
6) Magnepan 3.6's
7) Audio Physic Virgo 3's
8) JM Labs Mini Utopia
9) Theil 3.6
10) Sonus Faber Signum
11) Harbeth 7ES-2
12) Magnepan 1.6
13) Revel Studio
14) B&W N800 Sigs
15) Harbeth Super HL-5

I've had a larger and a smaller system for a while so that explains the disparity in the last few pairs.

Most of these have been very good to exceptional sounding speakers. It's taken me a while to learn that the room makes all the difference in getting the most from your speakers and system.