The best speaker you ever heard?

Best loudspeakers I've ever heard?

Two come to mind as of this post.
First, the Sound Labs A-1's which I owned.
Second, The MBL big boys.
The order is the order of memory not which was/is best...the MBL's win hands down, but at multiples the cost of the Sound Labs that's not too surprising.

The MBL's have that, 'you REALLY ARE THERE', kind of dynamic, holographic thing going on that very few if any speakers can even touch...they are, in a word, miraculous.

Good listening.
Larry

Today I heard the Vandersteen 7"s at Audio Connnection with ARC Ref 210's and an ARC Ref 5 preamp. (I was there to check on an order I placed last week.)
When I walked in little did I know I was going to be treated to some of the best music I have heard though loudspeakers in my 20 years following audio. I heard a variety of music from massed voices to down and dirty blues and then Kevin Mahogany; the synergy of these two reference products combined with top Kimber cables were simply astounding on a variety of levels. The tonality combined with the slam, soundstaging (depth, width and placement) and high resolution created spookily real musical events. While the recordings were good, they were not the ordinary "audiofile" type of recordings that can sound excellent on many different types of systems. Some speakers do voices well, but cannot do brass. Others can do guitar, but lack slam. It seems that there is always some sort of trade off. The Vandersteen 7 speakers seem to do it all well.
If you can afford the (high) price of admission, these speakers are a must hear and must be considered among the best of the best.

Aronsss, I have known Richard Vandersteen since the '70s. I ran into him at the 2010 CES, and he said that I needed to go hear the 7s. This year, I had a long talk with him. He said that in the 7's he had put his cost no object best he knew of in them. He said he was surprised at how well they were sounding. I told him I was not, that they were by far his best speakers.

I have owned virtually every speaker he has made but have none now. I do have the Tidal Contriva Diacera SEs and would love to hear the Vandersteen 7s directly compared with them. But alas I probably never will get this opportunity.

the Evans Model One but this Model One with no crossover and full range is just spectacular

This has been my experience as well. Tom Evans uses a Jordan JX-92S driver? IMHO there are even better options than the Jordan.

Aronsss, I heard the Vandersteen 5A several years ago and came to the conclusion the 5A was one of the best speakers I have heard. The only significant weakness compared to the Soundlab(A3) and large Infinity Reference Models(Sigma-Beta)was soundstage height. If the 7 is an all around impovement of the 5A, it is without a doubt one of the best loudspeakers regardless of $$$.