The best speaker you ever heard?

Best commercial speakers I've heard are the S.A.P. J2001 (with twin 12" woofers), which is why I purchased them. These speakers have a small Onken cabinet for the woofers, a horn midrange that is poised on top of the woofer cabinet, and a Fostex bullet tweeter.

I also like Soundlab U-1s. I've also heard some pretty wild custom systems, one in particular comes to mind. It had a pair of huge Western Electric horns for the midrange that have a throat that is curled like a ram's horn. The owner of this system just set up a new system in a huge dedicated room and uses a pair of $250,000 Gaku-On amps to drive the midrange. I have yet to hear this latest iteration, but I expect it to be something special.

Tbg & Steve01s4,

You fellas are troublemakers. Now I have to hunt down these speakers out of curiosity.

I have a pair of Audionote UK Kageki amps (similar to Kegons, but utilizing 2a3s instead of 300Bs). I have not heard the Kegons, but, I will venture to say that you should also hear the Gaku-On (powerful, 211 based amps with a warm tonal balance), and the quite different sounding Sogon (very fast, extended on top and leaner sounding than the Gaku-On). My Kagekis are closer to the Sogon camp.

Ctsooner,

I heard the D40 and I agree that Proac does a very good job with a ribbon tweeter where other manufacturers haven't quite pulled it off. I suppose it is mostly a matter of voicing than any particular technology. I say this because Proac seems to do a good job of getting the sound of its speakers fundamentally "right" across their entire lineup.