what is the best super speaker and why?

I'm with you Kirk930 as I prefer the JMs over the Avalons, but to each his own.....Best I have heard are the Rockports, but these are choices you need to make yourself....I've been running the Rockport Syzygy speakers with modified Entec L2f woofers now for about nine years and find them just wonderful.....The Rockports and the Kharmas sound similar with the Rockports having more "pop" if that is important to you......

Cornfed seems to have a problem with Kirk. Avalon and JM Lab both make World Class speakers. And yes, they both use Focal drivers. Can't we all just get along?

The Soundlab's are a great value, in my opinion they have many of the best capabilities of the group mentioned above, all of which are excellent speakers, and which you would likely be happy owning. They are relatively easy to get good sound out of without taking over your listening area. However in a recent spate of listening done over a two day period to Soundlab’s and the Avantgarde's, the Avantgarde's carried the day clearly, by a significant margin; with a knowledgeable dealer doing the setup, they are amazing..otherwise they can sound pretty mediocre. I have been an Audiophile for 25 years, to date the Avantgarde's are the best I have heard; I am currently saving to buy a pair. Avantgarde Trio's are in the 30k range, and are their best performing model; however the Avantgarde Uno's are amazing for a third of the price, and in my opinion best in many regards, most of the systems you have mentioned...but again, only with expert setup will this be true.

Bioman, considering your posts of the last few months and your Bio, I am totally surprised at your interest in Avantgarde.

Owing to the fact you hail from Central Texas, it would be interesting to know who the dealer was that demonstrated both Soundlab Ultimate ones and Avantgarde.

Albert, you’re assuming it was the same dealer..I never said it was.
Ne Plus Ultra for the Avantgarde's and Sound Mind Audio for the Sound Lab's. As I implied, I could easily live with either as both are great systems...but I felt, for my tastes, that the Avantgarde’s clearly had the edge. As for several of the other speakers mentioned, my job as an engineer takes me to other states where I have had an opportunity to hear several but not all of the above mentioned systems as well as the Utopia's at an old friends home...who has deep pockets. So I admit that circumstances under which I heard the systems entailed differing electronics and room acoustics; no situation is ever optimal. My recent renewed interest in the world of high-end audio has been exciting...I kind of feel like a kid in a candy shop. P.S., I am not in any way affiliated with either Avantgarde or Sound Labs...my business interests lie in the medical field.