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
I would have to say that the JM Lab Grande Utopia Beryllium were the best speaker I have ever listened to. I have been an audio phile for more than 15 years and have listened to The best Dynaudio, B&W, Revel Salon, Linn and many other brands. I had the opportunity to listem to the JM Labs the other day and was blown away. Most speakers have their own look and their own sound. Some are more forward, some focos on base ar mid-range. The JM Labs were extremely well rounded and in a very well designed cosmedicaly pleasing cabinet. They had a tremendace sound stage with very accurate depth. The imaging was incredible, at one point I closed my eyes with a nice live jazz disk and though I was at the venue. I took some time to listen to the rest of the line since they were $85,000.00 pair and was blown away withe entire line. The Electra's are there step down for $8,000 pair and they were steller. Take the time to check this one out.
Technical Audio Device Model-1. I heard this system at CES 04 with Pass labs amps. The room was crowded so I did not get a great seat but I could tell there was something I had never heard before. The dynamics throughout were amazing. Well I wished I had listened more after the show. Then I read this month’s Absolute Sound review and it seemed to match my impression of these newbies exactly.

It seems as that they have put two designers from KEF and INFINITY who were showing the system at the show. I could tell that they knew what they were doing and it is shown in the construction and design on this system. The design of the drivers was very impressive including a Beryllium concentric tweeter / midrange point source. The cabinet is amazing construction also - very dead. Most of all they actually look very good. But still way out of my price range :(

Checkout what they look like on the site www.tadaudio.com
I have heard 99% of all mentioned speakers here. It is always a matter of opinion, electonics and recording but in terms of emotional involvment and pure stunning jaw dropping sound quality nothing comes close to the Legacy Whispers. I must mention that The whisper I listened to extensively were powered by the Coda 11.5 2 cahnnel amp with a wright sound tube pre.
Kozmonot, I'd be interested to know which two speakers of the list above you hadn't heard yet ;-)