Most agreed upon best speaker?

What a stupid waste of time this thread is.

Anybody who doesn't know that Audio Note AN/Es are the best speakers for all people, in all rooms, for all music and with all electronics is a stupid pig f---er, that's for sure.

Stacking Quads with B&W 801s gives the best of all worlds.

That or a 7.1 system with Wilson fronts, Thiel rears, and cogent horns on the sides.

I heard the Helix for a couple hours at a local reviewer's place and was underwhelmed.

Horses for courses!

If we're going to be serious now, the best speakers that _I've_ experienced - meaning the speakers that gave me the more intense, emotional connection to (reproduced) music I've heard - were the Cogent field-coil horns. Driven by Welborne electronics in the Welborne room, RMAF 06. They gelled perfectly even in that small room, and the lack of low bass was entirely a non-issue.

Sounded good the next year, too, with much more expensive/extravagant electronics, but, for whatever reason, did not create the same magic (for me).

I think second for me are the very pricey near top-line Audio Note AN/Es.

Luckily for me the much lower-priced AN/Es are also pretty damn good. Amazing, actually.

Ihcho,

Perhaps the fact that 95% of the responses are facetious says something to your question.

Lrsky, if you were as drunk as the rest of us, you'd have a better sense of humor.

Lrsky, your comments about soundstaging have so offended me I would like to meet you half-way between our two residences for a fistfight.

Ok, seriously, I think this is an issue with multi-way front horns and I think it's a coherence issue.

(Single-driver) back horns don't have this issue - in fact, they usually soundstage very well indeed.

Stats are indeed very lifelike texturally and tonally, but not, alas, dynamically (at all), and so they leave me bored.

(Now I'll probably get some real enemies.)

Field coils drivers are very tasty indeed.

They have an "ease" that you simply do not find with - anything else, probably.

I had a Supravox field coil setup. The 8", augmented with the giant bass drivers on an OB. Could not really get them to gel in my room.

My favorite setup with them was actually the 8" alone on the JE Labs-type baffle. Heavenly sound, bass to 50 Hz.

The Cogent and Classic horns are pretty special also, of course. Big $$$, of course.

Hifisoundguy, you can't get good sound with any modern speakers in your opinion?

Lrsky, would you come over and sign my abdomen?