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
Any one of the speakers from Zu that I heard/owned - Zu Druid, Zu Definition, Zu Presence, Zu Essence.
Anyone ever bother to do a tally of the most mentioned? If you believe in the "wisdom of crowds" these must have some (subjective) merits, and probably should be on any shoppers shortlist. A few pieces that appear to show up quite a bit are:

Avalon Eidolon
Avantgarde Duo/Trio
Dunlavy (IV)
Vandersteen (5a)
Klipsch horns
Apogee divas
The "big Wilsons"
Quad ESL63
Wisdom Audio M75
Nearfield Pipedream

Interesting how many of these are "old designs".

Anyone with too much time on their hands interested in tallying these across the entire thread?

Notable absenties in my opinion are: Revel's, Verity Audio's and MBLs.
I will only comment that the reason that some names do not appear frequently is not that they lack in quality but that no one ever gets to hear them. This would be the case for the top of the line speakers of any company who primarily operates outside the US.
I spent a year trying speakers. I compared Wilson Watt/Puppy, WAMM, Grand Slam, JMlab Grand Utopia, B&W original Nautilus, Goldmund Apologue, Goldmund Epilog, Apogee Diva, ATC 100 passive and active, Faber Extrema.
At that time the Goldmund Epilog had the most accurate timbre, was fast and did not boom. I really wanted the Nautilus but saved up for Epilogs and have not regretted it for a moment. I have heard horns that are a touch more dynamic but coloured. Otherwise I still haven't heard better, they are still available...
Frank
Hi there,I have Osborne Epitome speakers with bass bins,these speakers are something else.They easily blow off B@W 802 fs speakers I still have,and just seem to get better with better gear added.