Which arethe best (in order) symphonic / philarmonic orchestras in the
world and their conductors?

Hi cabron,

You've asked a hard question, there! I took a brief stab at finding
you a list, but what I found was an excellent article that confirmed
my own thoughts on the subject. "Orchestra managers and officials
suggest that it's a complicated question and that ranking basketball
teams is much easier."

Ranking orchestras is no easy feat, but many still try
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1646/3211209.html

Regards,
revbrenda1st

Search strategy:

top rated philharmonic orchestras
://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=top+rated+philharmonic+orchestras&meta=

As revbrenda has noted, it is virtually impossible to rank the world's
symphony orchestras.

However, there are orchestras that are generally acknowledged to be
among the finest.
Those would include, in no particular order:

Berlin Philharmonic
Israel Philharmonic
Moscow State Orchestra
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (UK)
London Symphony Orchestra
London Philharmonic
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam)
Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestre de Paris
Ceska filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra) 
Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig (Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra) 
Australian Symphony Orchestra
New Zealand Symphonyh Orchestra
Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal
Orchestre de la Swisse Romande (Swiss Romande Orchestra) 

The US "top five":

Boston
Chicago
Cleveland 
Philadelphia 
New York

and close on their heels:

New Orleans Symphony
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Minnesota Orchestra

Dallas Symphony
National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.)
Atlanta Symphony
Utah Symphony
Cincinatti Symphony


Here are some of the top conductors, again in no particular order:


Wolfgang Sawallisch
Daniel Barenboim
 Riccardo Chailly
Franz Welser-Most
Sir Simon Rattle
Claudio Abbado
Bernard Haitink
 Kurt Masur
 Christian Thielemann
Christoph von Dohnanyi
Christoph Eschenbach
 Esa-Pekka Salonen
David Robertson
Claus Peter Flor
Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Yuri Temirkanov 
 David Zinman
 Hans Vonk
Leonard Slatkin
 Michael Tilson Thomas
Hugh Wolff
Gerard Schwarz 
 Andrew Litton 
Marin Alsop 
 James Conlon
James Levine 
Kent Nagano
Keith Lockhart



Here are a couple of additional articles on the subject of ranking
orchestras.

San Francisco Chronicle
An orchestra's measured rise to the top 
How innovation turned the San Francisco Symphony into a big-league
player
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/08/PK191597.DTL

Orchestras Of The World 
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~beng16ng/orches.html

123 Top Orchestras
http://www.geocities.com/laurent_lin/classic_music/123.html

Nellie Bly
Google Answers Researcher

As both Researchers have noted above, the question of "best" has to do
with opinion.  What magazine's or which music critic's opinion would
you consider to be acceptable?  Your clarification would be of
assistance to a Researcher.