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

To be precise the phase alignment in question is not in the recording, amplification, but in a multi element speaker where the speaker element placing and crossover design affect the time alignment of the output.

Mr. Dunlavy was an RF engineer, reportedly, and in the RF world everything is objective and measured. I heard his speakers in the early 90s in a hifi show in Miami FL. They sounded better than most offerings there. Too big and too expensive for me back then.

You can use squarewaves to measure the timealignment of speakers. Time alignment is one of many factors in sound quality, and a pretty obvious one.

Following this logic single element speakers would be better but they have their own issues.

If this is the case ,tilling back your speakers, hummmm...I remember going to a rock concert once ,this was like 40 years ago. I noticed the speakers in the front were filled up...So when I went home I filled back my Advents and yeah I liked the sound ,they sounded different. 

The last paragraph in the stereophile review of the meridian dsp 8000 JA asks why the speaker wasn’t time aligned since they could basically do it for free and the reply was that specific xover design sounded better without it. The new dsp 8k’s are time aligned with the ability to switch it off and on with the remote and tbh I don’t think I can hear any difference.

The last paragraph in the stereophile review of the meridian dsp 8000 JA asks why the speaker wasn’t time aligned since they could basically do it for free and the reply was that specific xover design sounded better without it. The new dsp 8k’s are time aligned with the ability to switch it off and on with the remote and tbh I don’t think I can hear any difference.

I guess if we discount the waveform, then not having speakers time aligned makes sense if we just trust our ears?

They do look like some expensive speakers.

And it makes it a bit difficult to try other cables being a fully built active speaker.

((((JA asks why the speaker wasn’t time aligned since they could basically do it for free and the reply was that specific xover design sounded better without it.)))

I think the true answer is its not free!

 Actually very laborious in order to do it correctly using pis-tonic drivers networked in an-echoic neutral chamber custom tuned to 1/10th of a DB only then behave as a true coherent phase and time aligned speaker. Then in field tilt back properly done to your chair and ear height with distance from speaker allows the magic to happen. In the real world  most all designers and simple folks will run from this task.

  JohnnyR Vandersteen dealer