What are the best speakers you have ever owned and why?

Not exactly in order...

Infinity Qb

JBL L-110

3D Acoustics w single sub

Thiel 02

Magneoan SMG

KEF104 a/b

ESL, then stacked, then with Decca

KEF Kit / The Speaker Company 101

DCM Time Frame

Sonus Faber Concertino

Vandersteen 3a Signature

ADS L-730

Klipsch Cornwall

Dynaco A-25

Bryston Mini-A

Apogee Stage with custom Soundanchor

Vandersteen 5a

Quad ESL-63

Vandersteen 7mk2

Vandersteen TREO-CT

Vandersteen 1ci

Not bad for 40 years.... a few Bozak in there also

And considerable time at work with Shahinian, Thiel, Fried, KEF, Quad, acoustat, ADS, Vandersteen, Apogee, Soundlab, Beveridge, Infinity and the Watt Pups...

I now have the pair of speakers I will never get rid of as long as they keep working.  My high end journey past cheaper college systems with speakers that weren't too hot began with Allison Ones about 1978.  Had those until changing briefly to Paradigm 7's, then Albert Von Scheikert's Vortex Screens which I had from 1991 until 2006, then Emerald Physics CS-2's very briefly, VMPS 626 R's, then added VMPS 215/VSS upgraded sub to it, became a VMPS demonstrator for the last several years of Brian Cheney's life, VMPS RM40, VMPS RM30, VMPS RM40 BCSE, Green Mountain Audio Continuum 3/HX, Selah Tempesta, back to VMPS RM40 BCSE, and finally to my dream speaker this past summer, the Vapor Audio Joule Blacks.  All the speakers were bought used after the first 2 as I actually heard of Audiogon and other sites during 2005.

I'm finally starting to figure out how to get the most out of these awesome speakers--Nordost Pulsar footers came with them.  Took me several months of playing with the 2 part footers to finally get to having both parts under the top cabinets, but only the top part of the footer under the bottom cabinets.  My system is in the basement with a somewhat custom built room.  It has cement floors with ceramic tile on top and a large area rug between the speakers and my couch.  This allowed the bass to be very deep, potent, textural while one pair of footers at each location under the tops brought out great clarity and transparency along with hopping dynamics and a precision soundstage that was deep and easy to hear individual players throughout the range.  These speakers have very live sound now and just done ever break up or get stressed out in any way.  The speaker has a sweeter sounding Raal ribbon tweeter than the standard Joule.  I'm currently experimenting with the speaker cables & matching jumpers to see how much difference really great ones sound from the merely good.  I'm expecting it will be significant and probably be a done deal.

I have taken quite a while to assemble the system after much reading, and a couple swings and almost, always returning to the VMPS sound that really got me first--for much of the journey lusting after the Vapor speakers, particularly the Joule when the 2-piece version came out.  I finally got a chance at one that had some defects in the outer skin (veneer), but were otherwise VERY NICE and sounded near perfect to me.

Bob

Quad 2905. Clarity without harshness (unless digital source, of course).

@tomic601 I build my own components so I can use any parts I want and have tried most of them. My DAC is a directed heated triode design with a 30lb separate power supply. My website is not complete but you can get some info on vujadeaudio.com There are some links there to the CAF and you can hear a little of what the DC sounds like. The current amp I use on my Vandersteen 5s is a 100wpc bi-polar transistor hybrid power amp using (4) 6DJ8 tubes, filter choke, Nichicon power supply capacitors, V-Caps, Shinko and Caddock resistors. I also built the M5-HP filters for my Vandersteen that sound better than the Vandersteen filters in a quick comparison test.  The person who let me into their home to hear the Vandersteen 7s has asked me to make him the DAC.

Happy Listening.

Thiel CS 2.4s and a pair of SVS SB2000 subs.

Just right.