The best speaker you ever heard?

The sad thing is I sold them and just bought them back.
I have gone thru probably forty speaker systems the last thirty years.
I let a pair of Rosinante Evolution Reference go about eight years ago.
I just bought them back a couple of days ago. The fellow I sold them to had to move. Playing them on my present electronics and cables made me realize i should have never sold them in the first place. Best i have ever heard in my home.

Bowers and Wilkins 800D's are the single-best sounding speaker I've ever heard. I've heard those silly Focal Utopia things - they're not great. They don't have the imaging / sound stage that the B&Ws do.

If you like listening to music, you'll love Bowers & Wilkins speakers. If you like listening to speakers, try Wilson or Focal - hell, why not just buy some Bose speakers and a big ol' sub. It will all sound fine, but you're not listening to the music, you're listening to the speakers.

When you want to hear the music, as recorded, with nothing else, buy the B&Ws and then buy me a beer. You're welcome.

I would still have to pick the old Magnepan Tympani IVds driven by Mark Levinson. Those and the Klipsch Horns made the biggest impression anyway. Must have, I own Maggie 3.7s and Klipsch Corwalls now :-)

My best if list would alo include Vandersteen 5A and the Avalon Isis sounded great too and if memory serves the Infinity Reference had my jaw dropping, but size alone might have done that

MikeH

"Magnepan Tympani IVds driven by Mark Levinson. Those and the Klipsch Horns made the biggest impression anyway."

Funny, I first heard both of these at a single visit to a local dealer as a teen. I can remember the sound of Fleetwood Mac's self named album playing on these and what a revelation it was. Though I was a music lover and had a modest $200 Sanyo compact stereo system prior, I think that was the day I could have first been dubbed an "audiophile".

Tannoy active VXP 15" dual concentric VXP 15Q is THE best I have heard so far, especially the new active powered VXP8 8" is just so amazing for home use. They blew my socks off. They save you the bother of buying amplifiers. Instead you can invest in a decent balanced tranny/valve preamp. Fatigue free listening combined with ball coddling bass is heaven. Makes you forget that there is a wife you can go to for the same pleasure. I try listening to "hi fi" speakers costing twice as much but so far most of them fall short when you turn the volume dial up. At low volumes some speakers sound annoying and lack coherence. I like Quad electrostatics too for an ethereal sound but lack the guttural "realism" the cone drive units easily give. Thanks Dee