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
Larry, I think you are right. I was blown away by the Proacs and I've been a Proac guy for years and years, but they haven't sounded like that. With the right components, I think they can bloom, but they do need some power. I heard them with 50watt tube stuff and they were plenty loud, but I could tell there was more to them than that.
Devore 0/96....superb tonal density and still resolved, accurate, and balanced. Listen to mostly strings and voice and they're the best I've had overall including speakers costing 5-10x the price...
I'm still a Vandersteen fan after hearing so many different speakers over the last couple of weeks. Honesty, up and down the line their dynamics are very real as is their staging and imaging. I just don't fully get that response from any of the other speakers I've heard. I think that most folks just love that 'open, detailed, wide staging' etc...but even the Proacs are not emotional like I want at this point. The Audio Note stuff is great and very dynamic, but in the end there was just a little something missing. I don't even know what it is, but when I first started to listen years ago, single ended didn't do it for me either. At first they were so impressive, but on every day music they didn't fully do it. I think it would cost a ton more than other systems I'm looking at to get the best sound from them.