Quote:
Originally Posted by Wmcmanus 
The best speakers in the world are the ones you like the best until you've heard something that you like better. Then even when you think you've heard them all and have settled on the best of the best, that same company will come out with something better.
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I completely agree. Well said.
There are simply too many factors that go into sound reproduction apart from speakers that make it near-impossible to pick out the best pair of speakers in the world. Wayne has already highlighted quite a few of those. Hence, even from the speakers I've personally listened to, I cannot say that the most expensive of them all was the best sounding. I won't start naming them all out, but lets just say the Alexandria X-2 and Grande Utopia Be are on that list of "most expensive speakers I have listened to".
If I adhere to Wayne's 'rule' that "the best speakers in the world are the ones you like the best until you've heard something that you like better", then the best speakers in the world for me are the Sonus Faber Amati Anniversario. It is not even close to being one of those exotic multi-hundred-thousand dollar two-tower giants, yet in the right room and paired with the right gear, they sing like none other speaker I've heard. I don't doubt that the 101E sound better, but when I heard it, it didn't touch me like the Amati did.
Comparing speakers has always been something that has challenged me. It is so difficult to get the same speakers in the same room running from common front-end components and it doesn't help that I don't have an exceptionally good sonic memory of things. It is difficult coming out of an audition to remember just what I heard and not what I thought I heard.