The best speaker you ever heard?

Yes,I heard the HQD at Lyric,and at a lucky friend's home,back then!Superb,BUT....

Though some may question my taste,or opinion,this weekend I had the GREAT pleasure of hearing a "highly modded" and tuned to the "N'th" degree set up which consisted of modded Infinity RS-1b's,CJ ART,Lyra Titan-i,etc componentry...

The subject of "BEST" must be in context of room/system/owner's skills.

This system was absolutely amazing,and we played incredible LP's ranging from string quartets to orchestral,to jazz.

You name it,"this" set-up did it,to the maxx!!

This system belongs to the GREAT SID MARKS,of TAS fame!!

A "classic gentleman",and connoseur of great music/sound,on the "best" lp's!!...

The guy IS a legend,and has proven it on countless times,but......I was unprepared for this level of improvement in his always superb/full range/dynamic set-up!!

AMAZING,and I was lucky to experience it!!!

Best to all!

Fcrowder,I realize that my comments "must" be taken with a grain of salt,but "this" set-up at Sid Marks' home has gone far beyond anything I have heard!And I have heard alot!Over a span of 40 years in the hobby.I've heard Sid's stuff for the last thirty years.NOT close to this past weekend!!

That being said(I also owned Sid's speaker at one time,but could not match his AMAZING transformation in allowing "music" to blossom in such a thrilling and realistic way.Amazing really,as I have been privy to the Huge Nola Grand Ref/ASR stuff,and though stunning,it did not get me as involved as this highly tweaked out set-up owned by the "absolute master" of LP reproduction!.......AND he has an LP collection to REALLY die for!!!!

NO,the system sounds absolutely amazing(you simply have to take my word on this,or not)on any LP!!We heard loads of Shaded Dogs/Deccas and you name it.

First off,the room is fabulous,even though not very large.
The table/arm/cartridge is extremely well set up.At first I was not pleased to see Sid get rid of the fabulous(under statement)Air Tangent arm.Yet,the new 12.6(soon to be a 12.7)VPI/Titan-i has "finally" been set up scrutinizingly...by Richard Foster(another vinyl maven).....

THAT alone made a big difference from my last session,but Sid got a new(not expensive)cable,from pre to phonostage which simply was the icing on the cake.It is not even on the market yet,but his neighbor is the designer,and uses Sid's set-up to develop product.Along with new tubes,and a new mod by CJ there is seldom this degree of change there,but who knew I'd be THAT impressed...

To make sure I was not nuts,we went over to another friend owning the new fabulous Magico Minis(I love his system too).Sid "still" ruled the day!!Actually "The decade"!!

Stuff STILL to come(at chez Marks)is new teflon caps in all front end stuff,along with new CJ big mono blocks.I HOPE this actually is an improvement,as I cannot see it getting much better than this!

What can I say,aside from warning him that he can easily lose "this" magic if he gets too carefree with new additions.

Sometimes when you hit it BIG,you should know it,and maybe stop fotzing around!!

Best

Hey Rick,how are you?

Actually Sid made some significant changes that NOW vault the system to a rediculous level!It truly has to be experienced to believe me!
Best.

Stilty,actually you seem to be pretty lucky too.I've seen your system thread!!
Best.