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

I need to add this. The VMPS speakers since the advent of the ribbon mids, have captured my heart and ears. Their clarity, transparency, good bass, and very good dynamics make for a moving session. The Vapor build quality of the cabinets is so advanced and such a massive undertaking, you’ve got to appreciate the amount of work Ryan Scott puts into these babies. My particular pair doesn’t have as complete a finish on it as most do, but I’m so blessed to have them to listen to. I don’t think I could have ever owned a Joule Black at the list price of them at this point. The VMPS RM40 BCSE is maybe one of the greatest sound per dollar spent speakers anywhere. The Vapor Joule Black that I now own needs to have NO qualifiers as to its sound. In a normal sized room, they are all anyone could want in a speaker and more.  Thanks Ryan, and thanks Brian.

Bob

Since 1980:
Chartwell monitors (nice!)
B&W DM12
Thiel CS1.6
Vandersteen 2Ce Sig II (amazing value!)
Thiel CS2.4SE

With coaching from Tom Thiel, I just built completely new XOs for the 2.4s. I’m quite certain this is my last pair of speakers. Other than low bass, these seriously have most of what I hear from stuff like TAD Ref One, Vandersteen 7, and Vivid Giya (all of which are well out of my budget).

I've been lucky to own a number of modest but very good speakers.   My favorite  speaker that I formally owned was the PSB Platinum M2...    such a great speaker for the money.  I will buy another pair some day,  one of the few speakers I regret selling.  I miss them and thought they were better than the Revel M106 that replaced them.

Linaeum Model 10, easily the most uncannily real imaging of anything I ever heard. As one who was not usually complimentary of my choices said of the soundstage these things presented, "You were swimming in it."

Made by a small company in Portland, OR, I once brought mine to the designers home for a tweeter upgrade, after which they looked less elegant but sounded even better. The dipole tweeter, sat on top of an otherwise ordinary brick standing on end shaped enclosure, consisted of an ordinary driver that instead of driving a cone had two ribbons of plastic that came together at the coil and curved out and around. The ribbons, instead of being rigid like other drivers was just stiff enough to hold its shape but very flexible, the idea being instead of acting like a piston it flexes with the signal and propagates the wave form along the ribbon. Another identical driver facing backwards and wired out of phase made it dipole. However odd that sounds the music it made was enthralling. The only component my wife ever told me to buy!

Why don't I still have them? Two reasons. One, the old saying sins of commission are worse than sins of omission? Its true. They had a mid-bass hump that I recognized the first time I heard them but was able to put aside for years hearing nothing better until I was offered a killer deal on the Talon Khorus. But I was unable to sell the Linaeums. So why don't I have them? The wife. Or should I say first wife. She took em.

That's how good they were.

KLH Nine electrostats! In use since February 1992. Used with Futterman H3AA OTL mono amps.