I have followed B&W since the company was founded. You can measure time phase differences. When B&W began, all the profits went into laser and computers. They measured the electrical signal and compared it with what the laser showed came out of the speaker. The they bought some KEF three way speakers, and designed a better crossover, marketing the product as a Domestic Motor. This speaker used the same drivers as KEF, their oblong woofer, a Celestion upper midrange/tweeter, and a Coles super tweeter. The woofer was designed to be narrow for tax reasons, because the British Value Added Tax wa based on speaker width. Their second speaker only changed to a round woofer. The DM 4 ported the same box, instead of the lot, and turned this speaker upside down, which it should have been from the beginning, because it was a bit large to put on it side on a shelf. Further research, with evolving better equipment showed that phase alignment created a more coherent sound stage, begatting the DM6, affectionately known as The Pregnant penguin. The DM 7 and DM14 were next, with the position of the exposed tweeter of the 17 drawing a lot more attention than using electronic time delay, which also a had the issue of only working in a frequency dependent way. The rest is history, but includes better and better measuring equipment, materials, beveled cabinet edges (explaining why the wood Advents sounded better than the vinyl ones), then the sound deadening of the Matrix cabinets.
Phase alignment is certainly measurable.
Phase alignment is certainly measurable.