I have heard a number of brands and sometimes it is hard to tell which is the best. At times I have heard two brands of speakers and they both sound good so it boils down to speaker style and cost. Also, what sounds good or bad in the show room may sound entirely different in your listening room in your house. When the question is asked who makes the best speaker I am going to address it from a sound quality, cost, and style/quality standpoint: a system standpoint. I have Bose 701 Series II Mains and they sound excellent on my system. I heard side by side tests comparing them with other speakers at Good Guys at one time, and I was not sure what I heard at the dealer was correct. They were comparing Bose to much more expensive speakers. So the Bose did not sound as good but I felt inside the dealer was putting a bad signal intentionally into the Bose to get me to buy a more expensive brand. I shopped around and felt the Bose was the best bang for the buck and it sounds great in my room for a $1,000 a pair. I even went to a super high end audio store and looked at Nautilus speakers for $15,000 each and they sound great but not $29,000 better for a pair. However, Bose does not make big floor standing speakers anymore other than the 901 so when I replace these I will seriously consider Axiom M80's or M60's for their sound quality, cost, quality build, and great styling. So my pick of the best speaker from a system standpoint (cost, style/quality, sound qualiy) is the Axiom M80 or M60.
