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 I heard are Aerial Acoustics 8B internally wired with Audioquedt kilimanjaro silver wire, in Santos Rosewood with stands. From top to bottom the are coherent, smoth musical,great sound stage and depth.
Sigh well ................We cant have it all Ive learned THAT much................No wrong choices only pleasing ones .........K-Horns with Leak tube amplification for romp and stomp......ie Jazz Rock and Roll (Gustav Mahler) :) Quad esl 63 with John Bedini Class A solid state for Chamber music slow Miles Davis etc. Obviously these are my current choices secondary to my means......... ..........Acoustat 2+2's with 500 watts of Threshold amplification remains in my memory. The room, Ladies and Gentlemen appears to be the final arbiter.
My 2 cents worth: Best speakers I've ever heard are the Martin Logan Statements. As many of you would know these cost $70,000/pair! I've heard several other ML speakers but cannot compliment any one of them - something always seemed incorrect w.r.t the bass integration w/ the mid & hi freq. Of course, this is my opinion (& probably be lynched by a mob of ML enthusiasts!!)
Anyway, the Statements were being demo'd by Gayle Matin Sanders himself. They were connected to a Krell FPB 600 amp - one amp per channel! He used a Krell pre & a Krell SACD player. All cables were MIT.
What made the speakers the best I heard? They just brought the music into my lap! Each recording I heard made me feel that I was listening to a live performance. Fantastic imaging, 3D soundstage, wide sweet-spot, clarity of vocals, fantastic speed - not a note lingered beyond its welcome point, seemless integration of all frequencies - all 3 drivers (panel + mid-bass + bass) worked harmoniously. Heard a church choir recording (recorded in San Fransisco) wherein the church organ had some really low bass freq (20Hz & maybe lower) & bass unit of the Statements reproduced that very well. Whatever was not bolted to the wall, rattled (just like an earthquake!) when those organ notes came thru. I was in the demo 10-15 minutes so I could only gauge a few key parameters stated above. These were Gayle's recordings & could very well be slighted to make the speakers sound good. I was encouraged to bring my own recordings but the line for that was soooo long that I gave up!
Personally, what made a diff. in these speakers (vs. other ML) was that the hi & mid units were totally seperated from the bass unit. The Statements have 1 electrostatic panel which is over 6 ft tall (with base) that responds down to 200Hz. There is another column alongside (which has 6-10) mid-bass cones that respond between 80Hz & 200Hz. Then, there is that bass tower, 5 feet tall, that has 8 12" woofers per channel that responds from 80Hz down to 18Hz!!! This was just a killer system sound-wise & looks-wise.