The best speaker you ever heard?


In my opinion, the speaker is by far the most important part of the audio system. After all, it is the only part you hear. OK, the other stuff really matters a lot, but without a great speaker... No go.

I am a bit 'speaker-obsessed' I guess, and now I am wondering: What are the best speakers you have ever heard, and what made them the best?
njonker
Sequerra Metronome 3---This was many years ago. I went to Definitive Audio in Brooklyn to hear the B&W 801; at that time loudly proclaimed as the best Speaker in the World by all the major audio magazines on both sides of the Atlantic.
Well, the Metronome 3 Kicked its A--so badly it was not funny.
From then on, I never again trusted the Mainstream press audio magazines.

BTW nothing I've heard since then has come quite as close to that magical moment.
Original Quad electrostatics and Avantgarde Duos.

The Quads are the most natural, immediate and alive sounding speakers I have heard. It also is a relatively practical speaker in cost and size. It makes most other speakers sound like, well, speakers. In other words, other speakers seem to make it more obvious that sound is being REproduced through an electromechanical device.

The Avantgardes come a close second but have the advantages of playing louder, deeper and probably higher. They also sounded really big, maybe too big. I've only heard them at a dealer, however.

Other speakers I've heard in demos include Infinity IRS, various Apogee ribbons, various Martin Logans, and the original Sound Labs.

Incidentally, to Armyscout41, the question was "What is the best speaker YOU have heard," which anybody should be able to answer, not "What is the best sounding speaker," which in theory would likely require someone to have heard everything.
Evita, I agree. Its all subjective. My response would certainly have changed a few times =)
In the 70's Snell typeA;80's Infinity IRS & Linn DMS;90's Watt Puppies fed by Wadia in Chicago Show; Now ???