The ideal speaker ??
The two top-most Klipsch speakers are the vintage Klipschorn, and their more modern Jubilee. They both have a very good low end. They also both share two unacceptable ( to me ) design flaws. What I can not stand about them, is that they use non-direct-radiating 15 inch drivers, and a non-direct-radiating ( rear-loaded ) horn....... for the bass section.
I subjectively much much prefer listening to
(a) a front-direct-radiating 15 inch driver, and
(b) a front-loaded horn, in front of that same 15 inch driver.
To me, for my own home use, this happily translates into a professional movie theatre speaker, a vintage ALTEC VOTT A7-8 configuration. Yes, it will never have the low end of the aforementioned Klipsch speakers, who cares, not I !!
One other thing, the Klipsch drivers, through the years, were cheaply made. Most serious owners ( who were not wise enough to buy ALTEC - in the first place ) end up replacing their stock Klipsch drivers, with better quality ones from other manufacturers.
Possibly, the three best speakers available are not from any consumer level manufacturer at all. They are professional-use drivers.
The three best speakers IMHO, are : ALTEC, Klangfilm, and ALE. ALEs are modern Japanese $50,000 to $100,000 dollar copies of ALTEC drivers, which are blueprint-assembled as to tolerances and fitting of voice coils to gaps, etc.
There certainly is a huge sound- quality difference between rear-loaded-horns with non-direct-radiating cheaply-made 15 inch woofers., and a "lowly" old ALTEC A7-8 ...... done to the Queen's taste.
The other speaker I truly enjoy, a "full-blown" consumer-level offering, is the fabulous all-German MBL Radialstrahler audio system. Do you have a couple of million dollars to loan me for one ? YMMV, of course, its my own subjective report herein. Thanks.
drlowmu