Sloped baffle


Some great speakers have it, some don't. Is it an important feature?
psag
Proving that even those who totally believe in time and phase correct speakers can love a non-coherent speaker, read the following.

The Tannoys are not time and phase coherent. The higher order crossover prevents phase coherency, and that they are not time correct shows in every review where there is an impulse test, such as the review that these comments by John Atkinson were in:

"In the time domain, the Tannoy's impulse response (fig.6) looks typical of a design that uses a high-order crossover. Indeed, the step response (fig.7) confirms my suspicion from the impulse response that the Churchill is not time-coherent, despite its use of a coaxial drive-unit that places the tweeter diaphragm close to the acoustic center of the woofer. The tweeter output arrives at the measuring microphone first, followed by the woofer output."

Note that guy who argues heavily for time and phase correctness, Lewinskih, previously wrote, on this forum:

" the Tannoy studio monitors sound simply superb. They sound cohesive like the sound is cut from a single piece of cloth. The concentric horn-loaded tweeter is superbly integrated with regular cone woofer. The sound is very real. I've paired it with a tube amp & this combination seems to be a winner to my ears. The dispersion pattern of the speaker is 90 degrees the way the woofer is made & because of the horn loaded tweeter. Hence these speaker care much less whether they are mounted high up or sitting on the floor. I've actually tested this when they sat on the floor - the images were all up at my seated ear level!
I've tried these speakers with my s.s amp as well & they sound very good there as well. Realistic sound, excellent imaging, extended highs"

Since he waxes poetic about a design that has never time nor phase alignment / coherency, one can only conclude that these characteristics are not the "be all, end all" that many espouse.
I'm a fan of time-and-phase coherent speakers (and a GMA owner). Just want to throw that out there...

One correction to the conversation - single-driver speakers are NOT time-and-phase coherent. They would be if the speaker operates as a perfect-piston over the entire frequency range, but this is not reality. At certain frequencies, the driver can't respond as quickly as a perfect-piston, and the phase starts to lag.
Lewinski... great post. I was impressed by the various digital analyses and corrections that the software was able to effect. Hopefully, speaker manufacturers will be able to achieve greater time and phase alignment, driver linearity and low distortion by designing better X-overs. It may be that the best solution will be an active crossover that can effect the various functionalities that were the subject of your post.

I realize that Richard Vandersteen does this on his high end speakers to some degree, but it sure would be nice if it would be more plug and play. After all, not everybody is a former NASA rocket scientist or a Steven Jobs/Bill Gates computer genius.

Thanks.
The DIY forums and this one have something in common. Very rarely does anybody listen to any advice or criticism that they don't want to hear.
Lewinski... great post. I was impressed by the various digital analyses and corrections that the software was able to effect. Hopefully, speaker manufacturers will be able to achieve greater time and phase alignment, driver linearity and low distortion by designing better X-overs. It may be that the best solution will be an active crossover that can effect the various functionalities that were the subject of your post.
...
After all, not everybody is a former NASA rocket scientist or a Steven Jobs/Bill Gates computer genius.

Thanks Bifwynne.

Not sure if you were implying I'm a computer genius. But to clarify it just in case: I'm certainly not!!! Not even very savvy, honestly! It looks a lot harder than what it is. I just have a dedicated server with JRiver and the Audiophile Optimizer running in it. The hardware is optimized. Amazing sound. And it was a set it and forget it setup.

Cheers!