What are the best speakers you have ever owned and why?

The list is long but I worked at high end dealer both in HS and University, so changing gear was easy and relatively inexpensive..... sold my high end gear to exit college mostly debt free but kept a Sony CD, Tandberg cassette, NAD 3020A and KEF Kit 101’s ....

got back into higher fi in 2001 and since have run mostly Vandersteen as my Reference 3a-sig, then 5a and now in retirement the 7 mk2
we also have the lovely Treo CT at our winter place

We were a Shahinian dealer, I always thought the Obelisk was hyper musical
enjoy them in good health
retirement at least for us gives us much time to catch live music and listen at leisure late into the night !!!

I thought the Vandersteen 5s I owned were really good (actually they are really good).  I visited a audio person this past weekend to hear the Vandersteen 7s using my DAC.  I was really taken back by how good the 7s sounded.  Anyone want to sell me theirs cheap?  I have heard many other speakers in this price range and I would imagine that they all have an excellent sound in the right system.  I was taken back by the ease of flow of the music, the clarity, and the micro to macro dynamic swings which just flowed out of the speakers.  Very black background (part of that is from the DAC) though.  I did leave with a with a very big smile.

Happy Listening.

 @bigkidz You would have to buy  the amps also.... ha!
like water, crystal clear water....

what DAC do you have ?

Not exactly in order...

Infinity Qb

JBL L-110

3D Acoustics w single sub

Thiel 02

Magneoan SMG

KEF104 a/b

ESL, then stacked, then with Decca

KEF Kit / The Speaker Company 101

DCM Time Frame

Sonus Faber Concertino

Vandersteen 3a Signature

ADS L-730

Klipsch Cornwall

Dynaco A-25

Bryston Mini-A

Apogee Stage with custom Soundanchor

Vandersteen 5a

Quad ESL-63

Vandersteen 7mk2

Vandersteen TREO-CT

Vandersteen 1ci

Not bad for 40 years.... a few Bozak in there also

And considerable time at work with Shahinian, Thiel, Fried, KEF, Quad, acoustat, ADS, Vandersteen, Apogee, Soundlab, Beveridge, Infinity and the Watt Pups...

I now have the pair of speakers I will never get rid of as long as they keep working.  My high end journey past cheaper college systems with speakers that weren't too hot began with Allison Ones about 1978.  Had those until changing briefly to Paradigm 7's, then Albert Von Scheikert's Vortex Screens which I had from 1991 until 2006, then Emerald Physics CS-2's very briefly, VMPS 626 R's, then added VMPS 215/VSS upgraded sub to it, became a VMPS demonstrator for the last several years of Brian Cheney's life, VMPS RM40, VMPS RM30, VMPS RM40 BCSE, Green Mountain Audio Continuum 3/HX, Selah Tempesta, back to VMPS RM40 BCSE, and finally to my dream speaker this past summer, the Vapor Audio Joule Blacks.  All the speakers were bought used after the first 2 as I actually heard of Audiogon and other sites during 2005.

I'm finally starting to figure out how to get the most out of these awesome speakers--Nordost Pulsar footers came with them.  Took me several months of playing with the 2 part footers to finally get to having both parts under the top cabinets, but only the top part of the footer under the bottom cabinets.  My system is in the basement with a somewhat custom built room.  It has cement floors with ceramic tile on top and a large area rug between the speakers and my couch.  This allowed the bass to be very deep, potent, textural while one pair of footers at each location under the tops brought out great clarity and transparency along with hopping dynamics and a precision soundstage that was deep and easy to hear individual players throughout the range.  These speakers have very live sound now and just done ever break up or get stressed out in any way.  The speaker has a sweeter sounding Raal ribbon tweeter than the standard Joule.  I'm currently experimenting with the speaker cables & matching jumpers to see how much difference really great ones sound from the merely good.  I'm expecting it will be significant and probably be a done deal.

I have taken quite a while to assemble the system after much reading, and a couple swings and almost, always returning to the VMPS sound that really got me first--for much of the journey lusting after the Vapor speakers, particularly the Joule when the 2-piece version came out.  I finally got a chance at one that had some defects in the outer skin (veneer), but were otherwise VERY NICE and sounded near perfect to me.

Bob