The best speaker you ever heard?

fla -
at present the clx's are driven by a borrowed pair of jolida music envoys in black which are 200 watts per channel monoblocks . the jolidas are great tube amps for their modest price of $2690 a pair but large electrostats need more power and refinement . ( isn't that always the case ? ) i will hopefully soon replace the music envoys with with two vac phi 300.1a's operating as bridged monoblocks which are three hundred watts of tube power per channel . unfortunately two vac phi 300.1a's retail for thirteen times the price of the jolida black music envoys . this is surely a perfect example of the law of diminishing returns .

on the subject of stratospheric prices for high end speakers and amps -- i checked out the new stereo shelf at the dynamic contrasts site : http://www.dynamic-contrasts.com/
the manufacturer makes some of the most over the top claims about his component rack ( called the rts ) in the history of high end hype . has anyone here tried this product ? according to the designer the $12,000 ( !! ) rts stereo shelf will transform the sound of any component to ultra high performance . i do admire this guy's confidence . i sent him a quick email :
" twelve thousand bucks for a stereo shelf ? ! ! ! have you gone completely insane ? ! ! "
and he sends an email right back :
" Well, you can certainly purchase a pair of $100k speakers, a $60k cdp, a $50k amp, or a pair of $30k speaker cables, or all four items and still only obtain a mere fraction of the RTS' performance when coupled with perhaps any well-thought-out system.
I ask you, which is more insane? In fact, if per chance my performance claims were only half true or even just one-quarter true the RTS would still be insanely cheap in comparison, don't you think? Relatively speaking of course. "

you have to love the hutzpah .

The best speaker I ever heard was my own (VMPS RM2) AFTER I replaced my expensive box subwoofers with an IB system(http://home.comcast.net/~infinitelybaffled/).

Suddenly, clarity (the most amazing thing, which I did not expect) from the l/r and center channels, and bass such as I've never heard before: refined, detailed, and extended below 10 htz (yes, I measured ,and equalized, this response, with a Velodyne SMS-1 system).

I will vote for the Focus 20/20 and/or the Helix
I believe that in the audio world qualifying a component should be based on the best quality at a reasonable price
Going above $20K is like selecting a Patek Phillipe over a Jager LeCoultre watch where selection is a matter of taste and preference where they both will have identical time precision

I will admit that nearly all of my high end speaker listening has been with the Focal line, but my clear favorite is the Focal Utopia Diablo with a JL Audio subwoofer. The first few times I heard this combination it simply blew me away. Even if I could afford the Utopia Grande speakers I would choose the Diablo's.