@SaberPunch It really bugs me that I can’t pick a favorite speaker or equipment combo 
I’m writing more to organize my own thoughts rather than answer a question and also because writing is sometimes therapeutic, like keeping a journal…
(i can use ALL the therapy) 
TLDR for all but Saberpunch; i say allot of nothing but speak volumes to what many audiophiles go through in parts of their own journeys.
Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to visit a bunch of dealers who carried some beautiful and way too expensive for my wallet speakers, and i also have 2 solid audio shows under my belt where again a sampling of nice equipment was present and enjoyed. 
My experience is limited so seriously, go looking elsewhere for advice on what to buy, on the other hand honest rambling thoughts don’t hurt anyone and maybe give you an idea for your own system
To ME and my ears and taste, thus far the ONLY speakers I crave just enough to MAYBE someday do something stupid financially were some large, custom field coil units, built by DejaVu audio in Virginia. (He was kind enough to allow me almost 2 hrs. of uninterrupted listening to music of my personal choice in his showroom.) The system was tube based and low wattage using a digital front end. Combined, the equipment did allot well, but at a cost in excess of my monetary means for all, I’m hesitant to look at custom field coil speakers, they require a bit more than an average front end and power. Thus in reality, i do have a favorite speaker, I simply don’t own it, the room or the system it comes with 
Not the exact system i enjoyed but close enough to be used as an example.
I also happen to like large box speakers in conjunction with multiple very large subwoofers using many thousands of watts. I have had the pleasure of visiting a home where the guy had 12 x 18”s and easily another dozen large surround speakers set-up for his movie viewing pleasure and he liked to run his system hot, not well balanced like a good movie theater. I loved it…
i also happen to like large club venues where the bass is overwhelming 
(so i enjoy bloated overemphasized bass and loud volume while surrounded by speakers, not a very audiophile quality or 2 channel ability) 
So, with this knowledge in mind let’s talk a bit about speakers i’m familiar w/ and what I play w/ weekly.
- Horn based speakers, my Klipsch K-horns, work pretty well in my room because i have good corners, a very tall ceiling, thousands of cubic feet of open air and the ability to adjust my seating position. I have heard K-horns in multiple environments and they sound MEH at best because they are always set up freestanding or in rooms simply too small and closed off to let them breathe and come to life. The soundstage is massive, like an open venue w/ a stage. The bottom end is tight and feels impactful. The peaky midrange “shout” is akin to a concert style performance which is why in my opinion, maybe why so many folks enjoy them w/ live recordings Fuck if i know what people like and dislike, I’ve auditioned the A5 versions, no way in heck would i spend $15K on these BUT for under $5k, if you have the room and space for them they are a value in the horn speaker market. Their bigger, bad ass brethren simply tend to cost many many thousands more $$$$
Mine are paid for, they play well at both low and high volume, they look super sexy in the corners of my room, they are super convenient for storing amplifiers on top of them and they sound “good enough” to keep for the foreseeable future or until i stumble across a more interesting speaker that needs a 24’ wide corner load. 
(that i can afford)
So the honest answer is that they are not my favorites, i would be willing to sell them someday BUT i need to replace them with another large corner loaded speaker that will work within the dimensions of my space and offer more clarity, realism, midrange emphasis and excitement. (Note, excitement has no value as an audiophile term or descriptor BUT it plays a huge role in my decision making process and willingness to spend money $$$ 
)
- Klipsch Heresy, this is a cheaply built speaker w/ very little quality in materials or build. Mine are the 1.5 model built in 84’ and part of the last batch before the vs2 model came out months after mine were built and sold. They are imaging freaks, very tight, a bit hard to position, they can get pretty peaky and have a bit of a shout in the midrange. They are so super easy to power and control w/ as little as 1.5 watts, they can work in a small room and work well, if you take your time w/ them and aren’t particularly OCD about sound character and quality, easily a speaker to have a ton of fun w/. There are many upgrades and parts available along w/ the relative ease of installation available for this speaker that makes it hard to not include in a collection for certain personality types like myself who enjoy to fiddle w/ things.
Absolutely not my favorite and i could never live w/ just a pair and nothing else BUT so damn easy to take apart, mess with, upgrade and NOT feel bad about the cost.
- Very small box speaker, Falcon LS3/5a, i love the veneer on my pair, they are small and oh so easy to transport, i don’t have a “perfect” amplifier for them yet… There are so many thousands of critiques and opinions on these speakers written over the past 50 yrs. (Same as anything from the Klipsch Heritage line) I really believe this pair of speakers will end up in my home in Greece, possibly playing off an Italian made or very custom built EL84 based amplifier and inter-swapped with a class A of possible German design and descent because YES.
Lastly if i can get someone to build me a matching pair of properly designed bass-bin stands for these i would be pretty happy. They work ok/decently in a medium sized room for lower volume listening, which is exactly my scenario in my apartment in Greece that i would have to contend with.
Are these my favorites? Nope, they do what they do very well though and again at under $4k they are allot of value next to the competitors that “best them” and most importantly nothing as small as them even comes close to their performance to best of my personal knowledge. Small, imaging freaks, with possibly perfect ability to reproduce vocal tones that work well in a small space if you can power and feed them well enough. (A surprisingly large number of people have this requirement of their speakers)
- Single driver, box speaker, Ωmega Super 6 XRS Alnico, i miss these speakers. Louis will build you a gorgeous speaker if you are willing to throw money at him and wait long enough and he will even match and build multiple varieties of subwoofers for you. That’s allot of value at under $10k, custom built tower or stand mounts and subs that play very well. Midrange magic queens which have surprising levels of resolution and are not necessarily difficult to power or as picky as you might think as far as amplification goes. I wanted his dual speaker design of this exact speaker, i MAY stumble across a used pair someday when i have a spare $3k -ish in my pocket and snap them up
. Why you ask? Because they do what they do so damned well. Again, more resolute speakers are available from other builders, models with more bass do exist, and some can even be had close to the price of the Ωmegas with custom finishes.
Were these my favorites? Nope, I wanted more, and i also had another speaker so very similar in sound character that when there was an itch i scratched it and moved on.
- Dual driver, crossoverless box speaker, Decware tube-tots. This speaker surprises me w/ its performance ability and as far as i’m concerned is a hidden gem in a vast sea of high priced pieces. I really wish a few of the more reputable reviewers would put these through their rounds but it’s simply not a speaker by a manufacturer that any one cares about, to include it’s maker because its priced too low to leave much of a profit, not an easy sell due to its target audience, completely inappropriate for your average or neophyte audiophile and simply part of a niche being dominated slowly by higher and higher entry level prices. This speaker does allot right but it’s taken me a while to mate and match best w/ various pieces of equipment and honestly it needs some good pieces to scale and perform well beyond it’s cost and diminutive size suggest. It’s by no means any sort of giant killer but IMO i have found it easily competing and competent well at a price point 5x it’s cost. and this is direct competition, not just “good for its budget”. Sometimes it takes me a while to find the best position for these, i has to swap out the feet and honestly i need to modify my stands to best accommodate them. I have found this speaker, for an average listener, easy to blend w/ subs. I’m not going to pretend that these speakers are high-end but i find myself using them very often, meaning, “they have character” and that trait seems to be a common factor in my personal preferences.
Not my favorites, i’ve heard better from larger speakers but these fill a niche and hole in my collection the Ωmegas left and do it for many thousands less than the next solid comparable (in my mind) . Anyone still reading and following along will notice a theme on dollar value to performance and how high I place it in my judgement.
- Common box speaker, BMR Philharmonic stand mounts. A most enjoyable stand mount box speaker that played oh so damned well w/ class A Sugden amp and a 300B pre-amp in line. I enjoy mine daily on my HT set-up because they were an easy choice for me to use there after i snagged a mated center channel for a reasonable price. Very few write ups on these, they have a measured flat frequency response, they are resolute, they require a bit of power, they are fairly easy to position, they do well with off axis listening, and are pretty neutral overall
Not my favorites, i do allot of low volume listening, these simply don’t get lively unless you crank the volume enough to start annoying people in the house. Not your neighbors but others within our paper built homes which have minimal if any sound damping from room to room 
- Common box speaker, BMR Philharmonic full sized towers, these require even more volume to get lively than their smaller brothers in my home. Very nice quality bass output, mine were custom built w/ a veneer to my personal preference thus they are a favorite as far as looks go. I swear i have nothing to complain about as far as SQ goes but they also do not have any “sound character” that sets them apart from any one of a thousand other well built box speakers I genuinely find traditional box speakers very difficult to judge, i have not had any “mind or soul blowing” experiences with any i have had the pleasure and experience w/ to date no matter the cost
The above speakers are favorites in looks, i had them built specifically to my taste. Would i sell them off? For what? It needs to be a special box speaker that would pry these out of my hands, something that has both looks and sound character that captures my soul. Also, these would be kick ass in a 5 channel mated HT set-up, someday i may make that happen and put all of my Philharmonic BMR’s in the same room so i can watch movies surrounded by them.
- Multi driver, open baffle, Spatial Audio M4 Triode masters. I find the holographic character of the open baffle design addictive, it helps that these speakers are also capable of bass reproduction down in the 40 and possibly high 30hz region when powered well and given enough room to operate as designed, they need some space, real space. This is another speaker in my collection for which i know I’m still looking for a “best” amplifier match. I’ve got some good combos but i know i’ve not maxed out the speakers abilities, i can feel it in my bones…
These are pretty darned close to a favorite speaker and if/when I stumble across the best front end combo I may have more to say, I’ve been eyeballing their larger M3 brothers lately and deep inside I know I want a pair 
I really enjoy the performance, concept and implementation of the tweeters.
- Single driver, horn loaded box, Charney audio Companion w/ older style Lowther DX65 drivers. I am going to spend way more money and time than I should with these speakers, and honestly will probably get minuscule beneficial results which is why I have held my hand till now. These types of speakers really are not for your average audiophile IMHO, there is a very deep hole of fine nuances that come w/ speakers capable of this kind of resolution and performance. Speakers like this really are a slippery gateway to Uber high end performance that usually takes place at a totally different price point well beyond what many W2 employees would find palatable
Performance abilities of this speaker/driver combo is at a level where really well trained ears come out to listen, criticize, critique and for the ones who love to fiddle, a deep hole of chasing your tail MAY ensue These speakers offer immense performance UP-TO-A-POINT where the limiting factor becomes volume. What I mean is that up to a point, they simply sound incredible and something inside me wants more volume, not just a little bit but gobs more and that will NOT happen for more than a few seconds unless you enjoy the smell and cost of blown equipment The really big boys in the audio world can give you both stellar performance and volume, it costs money 
, allot of it. These speakers belong in a well thought out, lovingingly built system tweaked and cared for with love and passion, not my ever changing rooms of swapped equipment, cables, and various sitting positions with home made bits and pieces pretending to add quality enhancements based on a few minutes of internet research and an hour or 2 in my workshop creating Frankenstein-esq cheap knock-offs of products I’m too poor to afford I know I’m leaving performance on the table, it’s like owning a really high performance vehicle and only being able to drive it around your neighborhood at 15mph
These speakers are absolutely NOT a favorite, I’m unable to focus my finances, efforts, wants, skills, abilities, or heartfelt desires on them. They require synergy much more than anything else I own and will benefit from many hard to grasp upgrades along the entire path if done properly. They are partially wasted on my level of listening experience, similar to the example of the high performance vehicle I gave above.
Like most hobbies there are generally manufacturers in it just for the money, and also many who designed and produced equipment for the love of the hobby w/ the hope of bringing something special to the market. There are many various designs, some innovative and others very traditional, your choices are limited by your experience, preferences and ultimately total financial sacrifice.
I did not bother to list my daily driver workhorses, they are relatively inexpensive name brands on the very bottom of the performance level of the hobby. They drive my daily listening systems for both normal television and background music in various rooms. They require just enough equipment to make them work and they are all mostly fed via some kind of wireless BT system that simply needs to work well daily. I use them as is, they are loud enough to overcome the background of daily living and i don’t much ever mess with them because i need them to simply work.
I’ve been writing for 2 days now mainly because i got annoyed at myself for not being able to pick a favorite anything, i’m a grown kid in a candy store when it comes to my hobbies, i adore everything 
Happy listening to all.
, parasound zamp, and for a time the EC Studio B.
should ship out next week.
, I have preferences for genre’s and output levels. Each speaker has its own character and requires coaxing to perform to its build and design level.
Bravo sir, bravo! Thank you for sharing your experience with your current speaker rotation. I know that post was your thought process, but I must say your enthusiasm is very infectious. I never felt too motivated to go out of my way to hear another speaker. I always come up with excuses and think that impressions and reviews are just good enough or maybe even better than listening to speakers in their “unoptimized” form. Reading your experience and audio adventure memories is a reminder to me that nothing will ever replace actual experience. Even though I found my perfect “bride-to-be” of an audio equipment, that doesn’t change the fact that I am still curious about listening to speakers from famous brands like Borresen or Raidho speakers. I still have an itch to experience open baffles and horn speakers. I want to buy a Decware UFO amp and experience that famous Decware midrange that people are willing to wait 2-3 years for. I want to listen to this crazed enthusiast boutique Korean amp that was built specifically for his vintage RCA system.