The best speaker you ever heard?

it's the original quads.

4 of them with a low powere tube amp is audio heaven.

Gotta agree with the GMA response. Spent a decade selling high-end audio and a lifetime as a musician and have heard nothing as real sounding as these speakers.

I also agree on the Green Mountain Audio speakers. Once you experience them in your home, you will want no other speakers.

Harbeth Super HL-5 were WAY up at the top of the list, too.

VON SCHWEIKERT VR-9 SE'S- you can (almost) squeeze a symphony orchestra into your living room with these puppies; my beloved eggleston andras, one of the most musical and balanced speakers from 20 to 20 i had ever heard, could never really convince me i was hearing large-scale ensembles- they lacked that last chunk of scale and authority.
plus, as good as they were at resolving detail WITHOUT sounding analytical, the VSA's are in another league altogether- the midrange, a lone 7 inch driver, is so transparent it reminds me of maggies and quads. btw, can you hear the tiny sound string musicians make as they position their bows a second before the music starts? in 40+ years in the hobby this is the 1st time and one more thing- the vr-9's come with adjustments for the three tweeters as well as the built-in activer subwooofer (they go flat to 16Hz if you like bass). the sound can be taylored to your room acoustics and your personal tastes. once upon a time i thought the wilson WAMM's were, given their size and complexity, the best speakers i'd ever witnessed- they reproduced live concert sound as well as classical orchestra music with equal authority. but they have more than met their match, and for almost 1/4th the cost. only the vr-9's
can reproduce a solo guitar with uncanny delicacy while the WAMM's might blow out of proportion.