The best speaker you ever heard?

I did enjoy the largest Apogees back in the day. My dealer then LOVED them and made sure they had their own room and the highest end ARC ref gear with MIT cables 'tuned' for the system by Bruce Brisson himself. They were pretty darn good from what I remember.

I too loved those Extrema's. I haven't heard the new ones but I don't love the new Sonus speakers. I just loved the sound of their older speakers back in the day and they look was WOW.....

Jump on Radio Shack before they go out of business.

Ebm,
You are the king of non sequiturs.

Indeed Mr.Adsal,the Wamm 7 were most probably the Reference of references in Wilsons whole lineup of loudspeakers!
I would vouch to say that even the Alexadria's pale in comparision.This was a limited edition that Wilson made at the time.
And at 250k a pair back 20 yrs was a heck of lot of $$,if were to compare it to todays market.

I can only think of two other companies offhand that are most definately in a leage of their own.

1st is MBL top of line.Unquestionably considered by the toughest of critics to be one the best systems ever.

2nd would have to be without any reservation whatsoever who have to be Goldmund.This along with MBL are handcrafted
and could definately leave the most descriminating audiophile speachless!

10-11-14: Ctsooner
Funny as stats and panels just have never done if for me. Way too hot when I've heard them and I've heard most of the TOL speakers. They seem to float the soundstage and almost always sound bigger than the actual performance was (yes, I've been in recording studios or recorded live on metal tape and heard the differences). Some folks love that sound, but in real life when you heard music live the panels won't usually sound 'right' for ME...That's just ME and not anyone else, so please don't take it that way. Some speakers are so detailed that they don't sound like live music either as most live music blends and that's what makes it sounds so awesome. We are also tricked by crowd noise as in audio we are the ones sitting on stage, but when you are live you usually are in the audience and hear the crowd noise differently. Just saying...

Cts, I found Infinity's Emit & Semit tweeters could sound a bit hot and generally benefited from some tubes in the mix. Indeed Arnie Nudell & John Ulrich voiced their speakers mostly with Audio Research tube gear. I've owned 3 pairs of classic Infinitys including the Ren 90's & found a happy medium running a Classe power amp & JVC XL-Z1050 as transport and Vimak DS-1800Mk2 dac. Though solid state, the qualities of that gear worked well with the Rens. So it might be partly a question of system matching/synergy. Another challenge you eluded to with panel speakers (as with all dipoles) is setup. True ribbon panels like the TSW Apogee Divas for example are notoriously hard to setup, require a large room & need to be placed well out in the room. Apparently the TSW Duetta Sigs are easier to setup. I haven't heard the resto'd TSW Divas, but my understanding is that Graz's new ribbons solved an issue with the original Diva's midrange power handling which results in smoother, more coherent sound. Whilst the stronger magnets, stiffer frames & better crossovers used today lift the speaker up to a new level. That said, the best dipoles i've ever heard were a pair of Infinity IRS-V's setup with massive Electrocompaniet mono blocks & an analogue front end.