Best 5 1/4's

I use Planet Audio 5 1/4's in my dash with 6.5's in the rear crossed over at amp and head unit and I can clearly crank them up way louder than you can listen too, safely. I have found that the foam speaker baffles do a good job of isolating the mids and highs from the sub bass to get you louder with less distortion. Even with a hole or 2 cut in them.

When you say you are running 10" L7's, do you mean Kicker L7's or JL 7's? I used to have a pair of Kicker L7's hooked to my 1200.1 and they sounded excellent! Have never been blessed with hearing 2 jl7's poundin' at the same time.......That would sound incredible. I am thinking about swapping out my 8000 series MTX's for the new 9500 series monsters. That will be the SH*T!

In my opinion, there is NO SUCH THING as "the best speaker."  Terms like "best" are entirely too subjective, especially in audio.  There are many recomendations we can give based on our personal experiences and likes/dislikes, but as several people have already said, the absolute ONLY smart way to buy audio equipment, especially speakers, is to LISTEN to them.  How they sound to your ears is all that matters if they are going into your car or home or boat or headphones or tricycle.

Also there is nothing wrong with using 5.25" speakers.  Sure, they don't usually have as much bass response (in general) as 6.5" speakers, but (he says again) if YOU LIKE how they sound, then that's all that matters.