The best "imaging" speakers?

I'm sure that speakers alone are not the answer. In the systems that gave me the best illusion of real life presence were MBL 101's, and a close second Hansen King. I think a key element of achieving this is rendering a lifelike scale (not too small and not too large). So many other things go into it...you certainly couldn't take either of these speakers, throw them into any system in any sized room and expect similar results. "Imaging", which you used in the title of the post, is only a part of what speakers must do well to create a convincing illusion, but imaging alone does not do it. Some of the best imaging speakers I've heard are smaller monitors, but they just cannot convey the scale or impact that really makes the "lifelike" illusion complete.

The best imaging speakers I ever heard were KEF 105.2s - spooky good. But the sweet spot was about 1 foot wide, move your head and the soundstage shifetd or collapsed.

-RW-

YG Acoustic speakers are imaging and transparency champs but lack the ability to play low and loud in the lower frequencies, at least for the Kipod that I heard

The Avalon Isis speaker system presented by Keith Johnson of Spectral stands out as the best imaging speakers I've ever heard. I must add though that the system included the state-of-the-art Spectral SDR-4000 pro CD player and top-of-the-line MIT Oracle MA cables. Truly breathtaking!

I think that you would have to look at what is the best imaging speaker/amp combination. I have a pair of dynaudio special 25's and Verity Audio Parsifals and they both image very well. Hook them up with VTL tube amps and triode and it is amazing. Very deep, holographic and wide, really makes feel like I am in the sound stage. Change to a belles SA-100 and we have detail, "slam", and tighter bass but the "imaging" becomes more two dementional. Just as wide but a lack of depth. I am listening to a Classe ca-2200 right now with the parsifals and it has some of the holographic imaging of the triode vtl but not nearly to the same degree, just as much air, some of the middle of the stage "you are there" but the slam of the belles as well. So the speaker and amp will give you this imaging factor and should be taken together. Per Kthomas, I do agree with the special 25, matched with the vtl st-150 is magic.