The best speaker you ever heard?

Lucky974,I listed Analysis Audio as the best speakers I have heard.To me they were jaw dropping good. Hope you have the chance to hear them properly.

08-05-14: Lloydelee21
Agree!!! I have a good friend with 3 awesome systems...Genesis 1.1s (basically the next generation of Infinity IRS Vs) are one of his flagship speakers (Tidal Sunrays and Marten Coltrane Supremes are his other 2!!).

Lloyd, is this the guy? http://marten.se/blog/2010/02/dutch-courage/

B&W 800s with Classe electronics

CTsooner, I just visited the Vandersteen web site. Holy smokes... 5A's are now $26K a pair and the 7's $52K! Fourteen years ago I almost bought a pair of 5's for $9K. Went with Hales Design instead.

"Carbon-fiber Perfect Piston" drivers? Really... I'm sure they're good, but $26K good?

08-13-14: After_hrs
Electrical synergy that translates to emotional and component harmony is key. As we all know a speaker is only as good as what the amplifier is doing for it primarily and what the room is doing additionally.

You raised a good point After_hrs. I've seen plenty of classic Infinity IRS speakers for example setup with cheap amps like rotel sitting on the ground with no isolation, cheap cables etc. I also recently read a review by Robert Youman who blew his budget on a pair of Magico Q7's which he is driving with a Vitus RI-100 integrated amp, PBD MPS-5 sacd player & VPI Aries turntable. He's using good cables (KS Elation) and good isolation (Rix Rax, Qpods, SRA), but the reality is with that setup his Q7's will be held back and he will never reach their full potential. I agree with this philosophy of using the best isolation and cables which are critical to getting the best out of your system, but that's about it.

My view is yes, you need to invest a good amount of money on speakers which firstly have good synergy with your upstream gear and are capable of growing with your system as it evolves (which a good reference speaker should do). For my system I chose Magico S5's which are a good value high end speaker which tick all the above boxes. But unlike that Youman's setup, I stepped up to a Vitus SIA-025 integrated, Stillpoints Ultra 5's + Ultra bases and mostly recently, Jorma Statement sc's for synergy with my Prime ic's & pc's. I'm also using a better power conditioner imho (Gigawatt) and have a front end upgrade around the corner which will easily best the PBD. Once my system is finished, that reviewer's budget would still well and truly outstrip mine, however whilst i'm sure his Q7's would have it over the S5's in terms of linearity, authority and scale, I bet my system would give his rig a good run for its money.