what is the best super speaker and why?

"There's a new kid in town" that has the credentials to take the absolute top position in super speakers. It is called the AV Reality "LuxAR".

What makes this speaker better than the rest? :

The tweeter is a brand new designed special professional variant of the Scan Speak ring radiator. It's housing is made from machined aluminum, with the dome driver being built to extremely tight tolerances, with the best materials Scan Speak could implement, with a unique triple rear tetrahedron chamber. The select audiophiles who have heard this tweeter say it's the first dome in the world to have the speed and transparency of a ribbon, with the obvious superior dispersion characteristics of a dome i.e the best of both designs, with the detriments of neither. It also handles and unbelievable 250 watts! Remember, this is a tweeter I am describing. It also has an outrageous price of $1000.00, for a tweeter!

The midrange and bass drivers of the LuxAR are also very special. The are custom made units by Scanning, who just happens to be the "father" of both Dynaudio and Scan Speak divers. These midranges and woofers have amazing impulse responses that make a typical Scan Speak Revelator woofer (which had been considered "state of the art" in terms of impulse response until now) sound compeltely average. With these new Scanning drivers, we are talking about "edge of the art" here performance here, not just state of the art.

The LuxAR's crossover is a brand new design that uses only four components. This crossover was developed by the AV Reality designer himself Peter Thompson. It is truly ingenious, and after you study the design, you wonder why nobody else has used it before!

The cabinets are unique in that they are triangular and have a unique internal bracing system that completely eliminates all resonances. It also looks very modern, has a very high WAF factor, and doesn't have to weigh 600+ lbs, like some other typical resonant free , 4"+ super speaker boxes.

To wrap up this LuxAR speaker design, Peter has implemented four 500 watt digital amplifiers that are taking the audiophile world by storm. Every reviewer in Europe who has heard this new "ICE" amplifier has proclaimed it to be the best sounding amplifier they have ever heard, bar none! This "ICE" amplifier is nothing like the digital amplifiers of the past. It advances what amplification to a new sonic level that should have ALL high end amplifier manufacturers shaking in their knees!

There you have it. A brand new "over the top" super speaker built with "Edge of the Art" drivers, crossovers, amplifiers and cabinets. In my opinion, this speaker is what Tiger Woods is to golf. A complete paradigm to what we can expect in terms of performance and absolute capabilities. With the AV Reality LuxAR speaker, the bar has been raised to a completely new standard!

Bioman, go with what sounds best to you. It appears that audiophiles either love the Avantgardes or hate them. I am going to try to audition them so I can form my own opinion. It is too bad that they and most other speaker manufacturers don't provide frequency and dispersion responses for their speakers. This would help to weed out a lot of the subjective BS IMHOP.

Well, Albert and Bio, FWIW I don't care a whole lot for either of your choices. No matter what is being played on Avantgardes I hear "Winchester Cathedral" in the back of my head. Purely psychological, I'm sure. God knows they're gorgeous beasts.

With the Soundlabs, I swear that I can hear comb filtering effects if I move vertically while a constant tone is being played. I betcha if I had a good mike and a good RTA/scope I could prove it. That membrane is just too big and my ear is too small. That's not to say the sound isn't luscious as long as you sit still.

You know, I just re-read my post and it sounds like I'm really slamming those speakers. Not so...at least that isn't my intention. They are both clearly world class. But both have, in my view, little flaws that keep them from being absolutely on the top of the heap. Very close, tho.

Bishopwill, nothing is on the top of the heap. There are flaws in every speaker ever built. Each listener must decide how many flaws and which type can be tolerated on a consistent basis.

I agree with your comments about Avantgarde, but as for the comb filtering sound you mention concerning Soundlabs, you must have heard an early model.

Soundlabs now utilizes "Distributed Resonance" (their buzz word) , that eliminates membrane resonance and dipole energy cancellation. The diaphragm is sectioned where instead of comb filtering or resonant peaks, different sections of the diaphragm resonate at different frequencies in a graded fashion."

This essentially makes dozens of phase matched micro panels that are combined in the quarter circle radial pattern that Soundlab is famous for. The design is in fact, a giant electronic microphone in reverse. Much like the microphones used to record most of what we discuss in these forums.

If there were a cone speaker built that was phase accurate full bandwidth, and with as low distortion as Soundlabs, I would be interested in them. The (gross) dynamics of cone speakers are superior and that is their strength. The Soundlabs phase accuracy, speed and ultra low distortion is its strength.