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
Klipsch Lascala..
I have owned well over 25 speakers in my life.. And in the past 20 years used the same source and amplification.. (only recently have i changed my amplification)..

In the past 3 years I have one (main) dedicated soundroom and in this time period I had the pleasure of trying 6 sets of different speakers..(Energy 22's, Koss DM 1030, PSB 800's, Klipsch KG4's, Paradigm 90p's, and Klipsch Lascala).. The winner for me is the Klipsch Lascala... I wish I still had all the best speakers from the past to finally try and see which would be best in this one room. I am sure Most of you know how much a room and placement can have on the sound of your system..

I have owned some very nice speakers in the past, such as Legacy Focus, Energy Veritas v1.8's, PSB Stratus Golds, Technics SB 7070's, to name a few. I wish I could get them all back and try them in my latest best suited sound room, to truly tell which was the best..

I also heard (in dealers setups) B&W 801's, JM Lab Utopias,and others with top of the line sources amd amplification, rarely have i been that impressed with dealer set ups..

But I do know that the Lascala's impress me more than any other.. for imaging, soundstaging clarity and dynamics..But is it because of the room? Which speakers of my past would sound better to me, today in this room.

I would also love to build a Golden Ratio Room have some of the best amplification, and source. then bring in over 30 pairs of the best speakers in the world and then give them the test.. That would truly be the real test to find the best speaker... But how likely is that to happen:) hmmm.. you never know:)
Wilson Alexandrias and Vandersteen 5A's. A friend actually has them both (two sets of Vandersteens..one pair placed near for jazz, and one pair placed far for orchestra works. He couldnt make up his mind I suppose, so got it all
The best loudspeaker for me, untill this moment Hansen Audio Prince V2

What I like most of this loudspeaker, is the way they disappear in the listening room. If you close your eyes, they are not there, and if you open them, you see the loudspeakers, but don't hear them. The music is where it's suppose to be. This are very emotional involving loudspeakers, with all the ingrediants you need, to enjoy the music, how it suppose to be.

This is one of the loudspeakers where I can truly say, that there are no compromisses made (for my ears that is)
For years I have had the Classic Audio Reproductions T-3s. It has always been an excellent compromise on the various issues that beset a speaker- good to 20Hz, revealing, images well, smooth while detailed, etc.

However at the RMAF the new version of this speaker was unveiled. The drivers can be optioned with Field coil operation and there is a new first-order crossover using improved crossover components. The result is a transformation. I have not heard an ESL that can keep up with them and they have bandwidth, impact and ease of placement that an ESL cannot hope to achieve.

The speaker is 20Hz to 35KHz, 97db, 16 ohms and one of the most revealing speakers I have heard. Right now I would call it the best I have heard too.

Alnico has long been the preferred magnetic structure in loudspeaker magnets because the magnetic field sags the least when the amplifier puts current through the voice coil. This makes for a better sounding speaker.

It should be evident now that Field Coil is the rising star in high end loudspeakers. The only other driver technology that has similar low-distortion capability is ESLs. In both cases, as the diaphragm is energized by the amplifier, the motive field (magnetic or electrostatic) does not sag. This allows for a dynamic driver that has dramatically reduced distortion. Anytime you reduce distortion you reveal detail. So far all the field-coil systems I've seen are high efficiency, which is a good thing, but the technology can be applied with improvement to any dynamic loudspeaker...
AvantGarde Trio

No other speaker I have heard like B&W 801; Thiel CS 7.2; ATC SCM 50 has been able to match its speed and resolution.