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
The best loudspeaker for me, untill this moment Hansen Audio Prince V2

What I like most of this loudspeaker, is the way they disappear in the listening room. If you close your eyes, they are not there, and if you open them, you see the loudspeakers, but don't hear them. The music is where it's suppose to be. This are very emotional involving loudspeakers, with all the ingrediants you need, to enjoy the music, how it suppose to be.

This is one of the loudspeakers where I can truly say, that there are no compromisses made (for my ears that is)
For years I have had the Classic Audio Reproductions T-3s. It has always been an excellent compromise on the various issues that beset a speaker- good to 20Hz, revealing, images well, smooth while detailed, etc.

However at the RMAF the new version of this speaker was unveiled. The drivers can be optioned with Field coil operation and there is a new first-order crossover using improved crossover components. The result is a transformation. I have not heard an ESL that can keep up with them and they have bandwidth, impact and ease of placement that an ESL cannot hope to achieve.

The speaker is 20Hz to 35KHz, 97db, 16 ohms and one of the most revealing speakers I have heard. Right now I would call it the best I have heard too.

Alnico has long been the preferred magnetic structure in loudspeaker magnets because the magnetic field sags the least when the amplifier puts current through the voice coil. This makes for a better sounding speaker.

It should be evident now that Field Coil is the rising star in high end loudspeakers. The only other driver technology that has similar low-distortion capability is ESLs. In both cases, as the diaphragm is energized by the amplifier, the motive field (magnetic or electrostatic) does not sag. This allows for a dynamic driver that has dramatically reduced distortion. Anytime you reduce distortion you reveal detail. So far all the field-coil systems I've seen are high efficiency, which is a good thing, but the technology can be applied with improvement to any dynamic loudspeaker...
AvantGarde Trio

No other speaker I have heard like B&W 801; Thiel CS 7.2; ATC SCM 50 has been able to match its speed and resolution.

10-17-08: Atmasphere
The drivers can be optioned with Field coil operation and there is a new first-order crossover using improved crossover components.
Does this apply to the smaller T1 speakers as well?