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
Best speakers I "EVER" heard...? Bose, "You are there"
(and you wished you were someplace...anyplace else!)
The most important part of an Audio system is the source. Garbage in Garbage out. The spaeker being most important is
fed by MFGS and Reatailers. Thats where the biggest margin is.
Dont be fooled. Source is key. I have heard 10K speakers fed with lousy sources sound like crap and great soureces making moderetly priced speakers sound great. If the source is laking all the speaker in the world cant help it.
Source IS the most important part of a system but a system is still a collection of all its parts. It is NOT true that the system is only as good as its weakest link. The weakest link is only the smartest place to spend money. Once the source is pretty darn good then other things including the speakers will make big differences even though a better source will always make a big difference. The problem is that most people can't listen to original master tapes which stomp any table or CD I have heard.
"Source is key" is not entirely accurate. Firstly, the originator of this thread stated that the speakers were most important, in his "OPINION."

Secondly, there is obviously a MUCH bigger difference between the top-end and bottom-end quality of speakers and the top and bottom quality of say, CD players. Now let's say the amp being a constant, take the best CD player in the world, and match it with some awful speakers ... paper-coned, single-driver, tweeterless crap ... it will sound awful. You would never know that there was a great CD player, or maybe amp, behind them.

Now take the worst CD player in the world and match it with amazing speakers, and it will sttll sound pretty good. WAY better than the 1st scenario. You would know that the speakers were of at least some quality. This is because there is less of a gap between the best and worst CD players than there is between the best and worst speakers. This does not mean that I want to argue that the source is less important, but one could argue that since a $50 CD player with $5,000 speakers sounds better than a $5,000 CD player with $50 speakers, the speakers are the more important component to get right. Now I don't mean to start a flame war here... I have heard the difference in cables, amps, cd players, and turntables ... it's all true and I know it to be first-hand, but all things being equal, speakers are more variable and make a bigger difference, "in my opinion."