@kenjit Nope
A Question About Time Alignment
I was reading a review of the Wilson Alex V on Stereophile recently. (Published just in time. I’m thinking about picking up a pair. Maybe a couple for the bedroom, too.) And it raised a long-standing question of mine, one that I hope the wiser minds on this site can answer.
Wilson’s big selling point is aligning the different frequencies so they all reach your ear simultaneously. As I understand it, that’s why they have minute adjustments among the various drivers. The woofers put out bass notes that move slowly thanks to their long sound waves while the tweeters are playing faster moving, high frequency notes with short waves. Wilson lets you make adjustments so that they all arrive at the ear at once.
It seems to me, however, that live music isn’t time aligned. Suppose I’m playing the piano and you’re sitting across the room. When I stretch out my left hand to hit the low notes, those notes travel along the same long, slow wavelengths as the notes from Wilson’s woofers. Similarly, the treble notes I play with my right hand move quickly through the short wavelengths. The notes from the piano are naturally out of alignment. If Wilson’s goal is to achieve a lifelike sound, aligning the frequencies doesn’t seem like the way to do it.
Wilson has been selling lots of zillion dollar speakers for lots of years and people continue to gobble ‘em up. Something must be wrong with my line of reasoning. Would someone please point out where I’ve gone wrong? Nicely?
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@paul6001 Sorry that I derailed your thread with Kenjit, but overall and I can tell you that a handful of people that gave you answers had a very good understanding and gave accurate answers. It looks to me that regardless of the many answers, most concur. The speed of sound makes all frequencies travel at the same speed regardless of wavelength. Phasing does matter to some degree, but is not the be all end all. I can tell you that there are differences. I have taken a nice 2way out of a standard type of cabinet and switched it to a sloped front cabinet. To be fair, also changed the crossover a bit to compensate for listening angle at the seating position, but in the end. I was able to add depth to the soundstage as well as a more pinpoint placement of instruments... Overall, in some speakers, it may not be dramatic, but in others, depending on design, it very well could be. Good luck, I hope this helps in some way, Tim |
@kenjit LOL!!!!! How are you at fishing and baiting hooks? Makes you a what? Go stroke that ego. |
- 89 posts total