The best speaker you ever heard?

The Vandersteen 5a's owned by a friend. They're the only speakers I've heard with bass so clean it could be described as "transparent." Plus the mids and highs are detailed, conveying realistic timbres. They're very slightly lacking in dynamic response, but this is a minor quibble.

I have to agree with the Linkwitz Orion's. I, like many of us, have owned many speakers. From Ohms, to Maggies to Planers to high-end dynamic's etc. etc.. My jos allows me to travel extensively so there are also a lot of speakers I have auditioned. The Orion is the finest speaker I have owned or heard. They have shattered many audio myths that I thought were truths. The fact that Mr. Linkwitz, the HP scientist, that has also had a life long passion for audio has made them available so inexpensively to anyone who has the ability to build them themself (or you can have built for you, so inexpensively says volumes about the man. His audio expertise is beyond reproach unlike some other so called experts in the field IMO. If you love music you owe it to yourself to do a google search on them. Educate yourself and try and hear them if you can. It could very well be the best time and money you have spent in this wonderful passionate hobby of ours.

MERLIN VSM-M on a BERNING ZH-270!

Call me crazy but I doubt you can top that combo for double maybe even triple the money.

Converging Quad Oris 150 horn array with giant upsized decware imps and t900a tweeter.But Iam working on something better. Pic http://steinman.mesls.org/stereo/J%20Kalinoski%20Loudspeakers%20101.jpg

funny one tubeears!