This question is way too broad, and pretty much subject to individual interpretation; the best desktop radio for what application? The best portable for what - traveling, SWBC, ect??
I think for portables, you have to consider the ICF2010 as being the standard. Even tho it's been out of production for years, many reviewers will compare their radio - whatever they are reviewing - to a 2010 if they have been following the market for any length of time. True, it has a habit of blowing FETs in the front end (at least the earlier versions did), but it had things absolutely no portable had in its day - sync detection, generous memory and was very flexible insofar as what you could do with it. SWBC and even some utility stuff was very possible with it. I personally knew many VoA correspondents who, at the time, swore by the 2010 no matter where they traveled.
Desktop - hmm, that's a tougher question. I'd have to say the Drake R8B and AOR7030 had to be considered if not tops, at the very least in the top 2 or 3. Many folks also swore by (some I know swore at...) the Japan Radio Corporation NRD535 or NRD525.
JRC actually built its radios a lot tougher than what you would find in the commercial market. That was because they weren't - they were (and I think still are) a company that built their radios for the maritime market. It's true that some (including myself) thought the audio was too wooly for their taste, but the selectivity and sensitivity would give any commercial radio a run for its money.
I heard a story about one of the older JRC radios - a NRD515 in fact - from Larry Magne (yes, of Passport to World Band Radio fame). Evidently at one time they had a remote monitoring station set up in the jungles of Paraguay; during a fierce T-Storm, the antenna took a direct hit. The radio's cabinet was badly singed, but the radio still worked after a few boards were replaced. That would speak volumes about the grounding system used at that station, but also just how well that radio was constructed. Swap a couple of boards and get back on the air quickly - try THAT with any of the HF radios today.
By the way, I've been a NASWA member for over 20 years, and ran a SWL/Tech net in the Baltimore Md. area for almost a decade; I've seen reviews on these radios, and more, over those years. I'm willing to bet that those I've mentioned are in the top 10 in the world, both then and now.
73s Mike