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
Tonykay, I've owned Quads and even double Quads, the early Martin Logan, Accoustech, Infinity ServoStatics, etc. No panel speaker ever vanishes. At best they give you a sensation of listening to the recording studio through two windows to it. Secondly, the Quads, 57s or 63s have no bass and no woofers work with them as none can keep up.
@Tbg, have you read up on the Wilson Benesch Torus? That is fast and is capable of keeping up with ribbon drivers.
Tbg, no as with my S5's they don't need any augmentation in the bottom end. But my Dealer thinks really highly of it. The Torus is not a subwoofer in the traditional meaning. It works differently and is an "infrasonic generator" which improves dynamics and prat. The TAS review is a good read, though I can see from the specs that the Torus has had further development in the last 7 years which is to be expected.

If I owned a pair of Magico S1's or S3's, or panel speakers the Torus would be a no-brainer as it is one of the only, if not the only "sub" which is fast enough to keep up with beryllium and true ribbon drivers, and is a relative high end bargain.
Best speakers I've ever heard are now the FOcal Grand Utopia EMs in my living room. Rod Thomson performed a "Master Set" speaker tuning yesterday and the results took performance levels to a new high. Very impressive what these speakers can do, especially when properly set up in a room. Driven by VAC Statement amps and preamp, Esoteric p-02/D-02, High Fidelity and Hi Diamond cabling. Took years to put together - well worth the brain damage along the way. :-)