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


Some designers strive for phase and time coherency.  Will it improve sound quality?

jeffvegas

Even Levon Helm's ( RIP ) brilliantly damped kick drum has harmonics and reflections that allow the human ear to locate it and ascertain the acoustic reverberant space it is located in. Time and phase information in the waveform that makes it to the ear ... or not..  

I learned this past year how much diffuser panels helped with imaging.  Diffusers on the back wall brought the imaging into much sharper focus.  The next step was putting my speakers on springs.  That not only improved the bass but also increased detail and focused the soundstage even more.  Controlling room reflections has a big impact on imaging.  The springs isolate the speakers from the floor and reduce speaker cabinet ringing.   I saw the difference with accelerometer FFT plots.  As minor as that seems it makes an audible difference.  And remember, the Thiel speakers have a mineral front baffle that is very rigid but still benefitted with isolation.

What does ^that^ have to do with time/phase alignment in a speaker?

It is almost implying that a speaker which is not time/phase correct only need springs and wall treatments.

Or another spruiking of the springs for the Nth time.

It all depends on how the designer achieves T/P coherency. 

You cannot achieve T/P coherency with room treatments. 

i have modest specimens of 3 time-and-phase-aligned speakers -- one by magnapan, one by thiel, one by vandersteen, and they all image equally well [IOW when fed the right material they all seem to "disappear" leaving just the stereo image] to my ears but each has different requirements for listening room space and placement. the only ones that actually work in a small room, are the thiel and the maggie speakers. the vandy needs LOTS of space, no less than about a 300 sq/ft, in smaller rooms they get shouty at the crossover point [2.8kc] and totally lose their magical stereo imaging. i also have a mirage omnipolar and although i don’t guess they are time/phase-aligned, they image even better than the other 3 in my experience, again only if you give them plenty of space around them even though you can listen to them in the nearfield and get quite a spectacularly stable 3D stereo image that way with a wide sweet spot.