The best speaker you ever heard?

Hi fbi....I'm not completely sure about BEST speaker all around but I totally endorse your suggestions as I am a very happy RS 1-B owner. They just do everything thing so well (for me....for now).

Did anyone go to CES this year? There is a reason the VMPS Elixer smoked evryone. Come to think of it, they smoked everyone last year too. Imagine that. A loudspeaker under 5K cutting 20K-50K loudspeakers to ribbons. See anything wrong with this picture??...

Magnepan 20.1. Absolutely awesome. I belonged to Maggie after that. Vandersteen 5's close second.

Revel Salon's for me hands down. I had the opportunity to AB directly again Wilson Watt puppies(Version 6 I believe),ML Prodigy,B&W 801,Revel's own smaller Studio,and Ariel 20 and 10T speakers.All great speakers Im sure everyone would agree. But I personally felt that it(Salon's) was the best speaker for my equipment combination,room size and listening preferences. I felt these speakers basically did everything just a bit better. Especially low level detail and imaging. Most people always talk about how the bottom end is on a whole different level, but its the midrange sweetness and detail,resolution and pinpoint imaging that floors me everytime I hear em. Goes to show you what absolute engineering is cablable of. I wish more speaker companies had a R&D dept. that was the calibur of Revel's. We would all be winners in the end.

I haven't read many of the other responses so I'm sure this has been said before. I can't honestly say a speaker is the best I've heard because it always should be considered as part of a system. The best sounds have always come from systems with the best source componets. I don't have any experience with highend cd but when I was listening and comparing the Linn LP-12 was a common denominator. The SME III and Sleeping Beauty cartridge were also. Some speaker's personality change dramaticaly with different amplification. I suspect that Infinity Quantum Speakers were designed and auditioned using their switching amp and I never knew how good they could sound until I heard them with a Sony switching amp years later. A friend who was an Infinity dealer had their amp and preamp with a LP-12 and his system always sounded great with whatever speaker he had at the time. Same with the RS 2.5's and the switching amp. Polks with a Naim intergrated were outstanding, I'm not sure if they were elevated to such a high opinion because the sound so greatly exceeded expectations. Fried W's in two different systems were jawdropping. One system had an ARC SP-6. Dynamic range, ease of presentation, and shading with Linn Isobarics and the Naim equipment was the best I've heard. Mission 770's with Sony AudioLab equipment gave remarkable resolution of bass detail. The M2 by Meridian is another outstanding speaker great imaging and bass considering size. Other speakers I've auditioned which could amaze you at times were the Hill Plasmatronics and the Sony Esprit series, all three behemoths. Let's not forget Magnepans with GAS electronics, Linn, and homemade teflon interconnects.