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
~~~~Has to be Infinity Reference Standard Beta and 1a/b. A moving experience with each encounter!

Just The Facts
By
Hi fbi....I'm not completely sure about BEST speaker all around but I totally endorse your suggestions as I am a very happy RS 1-B owner. They just do everything thing so well (for me....for now).
Did anyone go to CES this year? There is a reason the VMPS Elixer smoked evryone. Come to think of it, they smoked everyone last year too. Imagine that. A loudspeaker under 5K cutting 20K-50K loudspeakers to ribbons. See anything wrong with this picture??...
Magnepan 20.1. Absolutely awesome. I belonged to Maggie after that. Vandersteen 5's close second.
Revel Salon's for me hands down. I had the opportunity to AB directly again Wilson Watt puppies(Version 6 I believe),ML Prodigy,B&W 801,Revel's own smaller Studio,and Ariel 20 and 10T speakers.All great speakers Im sure everyone would agree. But I personally felt that it(Salon's) was the best speaker for my equipment combination,room size and listening preferences. I felt these speakers basically did everything just a bit better. Especially low level detail and imaging. Most people always talk about how the bottom end is on a whole different level, but its the midrange sweetness and detail,resolution and pinpoint imaging that floors me everytime I hear em. Goes to show you what absolute engineering is cablable of. I wish more speaker companies had a R&D dept. that was the calibur of Revel's. We would all be winners in the end.