Does Time alignment and Phase coherency make for a better loudspeaker?

If I have to pick the most important factor in sounding live it's linearity. Double the input then the output should double. Triple and etc. And it's true in the entire system, not just speakers. I recall Bud Fried's speakers were linear phase and roughly time aligned but it was their linear changes in sound pressure level that made the sound real. And There are non linear phase and non time aligned speakers that sound real like ATCs and again it's linearity that makes it happen.

Why stop there? (one should be able to rank them maybe using Floyd's book)
But I think I agree with you, as non linear systems have a lot of harmonic distortion and IMD.

We can talk about the frequency response as the thing the translates best statistically to "being perceived as being good".

So if one had a speaker that was not time/phase correct, but had good frequency response, no cabinet resonances, and a good pattern, then they would sound better than a time/phase aligned speaker with bad FR.

If one uses a DSP to make the FR good, then we get a different fight.
If one uses a different DSP to also do impulse response (phase) EQ, then it is different again.

However a DSP cannot remove cabinet resonances , harmonic distortion, IMD, and port noise, and compression.
If you got ^those^ good however, one could do the rest in the specific few DSPs that allow it.

I'm sure I'm biased because I have Thiel CS 3.5's, but, even though they are voiced differently, I find that Thiels and Vandersteens (and Maggies) just sound right compared to so many otherwise good speakers. I'm not sure, but I believe the phase and time coherence make a big difference, at least to me!

Using vandersteen speakers. They are a pain in placement. But when you got it right the time aligent/phase coherent design is gorgeous. About 5 years go i measured/corrected them (for most my horrible Room acoustics) with Mathaudio Room EQ (incombination with Foobar 2000 for free) sound wise, it Raised them to another higher level esspecialy in imaging which they already did well. In 45 years time investing in a measuring mic of less than 100,- euro is the best audio investment i did in 45 years time.

the powered KEF 50 use DSP to correct the passive KEF 50 impulse response...somebody at KEF thought that a worthwhile thing to invest effort into....hmmmmmmmmm....

Ever hear a group of unamplified musicians playing spread apart on a stage...anywhere? No phase or time allignment occurs. Hmmm...