The best speaker you ever heard?

there is no best speaker. if there were such a thing, it would be a cone design that sounds like an electrostat, full range ribbon, or other planar magnetic speaker.

I remember the gradient 1.3. that was a wonderful speaker.

Soundwave metronomes . I cant believe the sound from these weird looking little things. I have never heard the soundwave soliloquys but I heard they were incredible too.

Hales Signature II's.

I heard the MBL 101e at THE show in LA and thought them one of the best for sure, although they benefited from crazy expensive electronics. Two other speakers at the show that stood out were ESP Concert Grand and Rockport Mira.

For under $10,000 the Reference 3a grand veena or any of the Reference 3a loudspeakers have a excellent midrange
for they use a very simple Xover and it shows in it's purity. The NSR Sonic D-3 is on par and a better balanced loudspeaker all around,please remember as good as the accolades at the show were they were just prototypes .The current production models are some 15-20% more refined ,and if you get the Reference Xover with either the Mundorf,or Duelund capacitors it gets even better.
Give them a long listen with any type of music then make a comment or decision.