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
Appogee Diva's: hearing things that left you incredulous and god smacked: we would laugh because all of that sound was coming from a piece of plastic with a diamond running through it!
Bose? Really? Take it apart and see what you paid for. Gimmicky gadgets. It will never be a speaker audiophiles can take seriously. Hype is what you paid for. Simply put you can't polish a turd. I bet you run them with the Carver cube amps from the 1980's because they sold on hype and were such crap as well. Can you bi-wire them? Try lamp cord because all that fancy wire is just a waste of money too.
Revel Salon 2 driven with two Mark Levinsons in "compound biamp" mode. Even better than BOSE!!
So far the best I've heard were the Legacy Helix at the Legacy Audio showroom in Springfield, IL. Other contenders Magnepan Tympani IVs, MG 3.6s, Acoustat 2+2s, Snell Type As, and Legacy 20/20s. I look forward to hearing other contenders.
I'd be willing to bet, reading some polar opposite posts about "best" being low cost and weird speakers alike, that it was more about what was the best ROOM. In my world (recording/mastering studios), its ALL about the room. A mix can blow you away in the right room on cheap speakers, or 2 seconds later sound like crap on killer speakers in a bad room.

I remember Glenn Meadows at Masterphonics used to master using Yamaha NS10M's on Cello amplifiers. Sounded very good in his room! That speaker, widely used for mixing, sounds awful to me 99% of the time.

Brad