What speakers can b considered as world reference?

Speakers that are perhaps most Live-like are the type used as studio main monitors to impress clients (musicians). These systems generally have a large sweetspot and have huge dynamic range with low distortion and are listened to from a far field position; a band can hear themselves immediately after recording before mixing/compressing all the live music for consumer consumption in the mix/mastering process. They are usually way to big to fit in a home. Generally these systems are often custom installed in walls in specially designed control rooms by acoustic experts (speaker design and crossovers may be uniquely tailored to each setup). These systems are not necessarily used for mixing or monitoring, as this is often done on smaller speakers with narrow dispersion in a near field position. Their main purpose is to impress musicians with a live-like sound, often at live music levels (very loud). If the artist is impressed they will be happy their A&R man booked the right studio. If they are really impressed then the artist may buy similar speakers and install them at home. Most consumers are not familiar enough with live sound to select speakers that would qualify as reference and most cannot dedicate a room to only this purpose. Top studios get constant use with many people and those with a good reputation are well known in the right circles and booked up well in advance. An underperforming or badly setup studio will usually get a make-over until they get it right or go out of business although some depend on their exotic getaway location more than the gear (bands love to party & holiday too). A tough world where customers are often the judge but many of the top studios have it => Reference Live sound and there are many good pro designs to choose from.

it seems that eliciting opinions as to the best speaker, amp, preamp or cd player is an eternal quest.

based upon my exposure to thousands of stereo system, i would say that panel speakers, and specifically electrostatic designs come closest to recreating the timbre and harmonics of instruments.

my all time favorite is the quad 57.

recently, there was a thread on this subject.

Apogee Grand, Genesis 1.1, The very big Acapella, Wilson WAMM, Nola Grand Exotica, Apogee Fullrange and some others. Basically the systems that dont tend to favour a certain type of music.

In my experience, the fantastic control room in Focus Recording Copenhagen, is a world reference. The custom monitoring designed by Ole Lund Christensen simply makes a mockery of every high end setup I have ever heard, including those costing three hundred thousand dollars for a stereo system.
Sphere.