Time coherence - how important and what speakers?

Far fewer speakers are really time-aligned than you might think. For example, the Wilson Sophia has a slanted baffle, but one look at the Stereophile review's impulse response tells you that it is not even close to being aligned in either time or phase! Speakers that really come close are the Dunlavys, Meadowlarks, Thiels, and Vandersteens. The impulse response is extremely easy to measure and tells you almost everything you need to know.

And yes, it is very important, it is the difference between merely a good-sounding speaker and one that sounds like real music.

Some consider time and phase coherent extremely important especially Richard Vandersteen.

But then you hear people rant and rave about the Hyperions, the Dynaudio Evidence Master and Temptation, the Krell LAT-1 all of which are not (I believe). From what I've read and heard from others, I would probably lean toward a speaker that was time and phase coherent in design.

Don't know about the Joseph's but the Meadowlark Blue Herrons selling for $9k are also time and phase coherent. Much effort appears to have been put into the the BH's, much like the Vandersteen Model 5's.

But on paper (I've not listened to either), the Vandersteen's appear to be over the top when it comes to design and detail. And they're only $1k more than the Blue Herons.

-IMO

While I have heard speakers that I enjoyed that weren't Time coherent I am consistently attracted to speakers that are. To my ears it is important. Dunlavy, Meadowlark, Quad, Spica, Thiel and Vandersteen are. I'm not sure but I think that the ESL Acustats, Audiostatic, German Physics, Huff omnis, Original Walsh, Yankee, Museatex Mel, ESL Sound Labs, Stax, Martin Logan CLS & CLZ might be ? Does anybody know about these last possibilities?

Any single-driver speaker, whether cone, walsh, electrostatic, or whatever, is automatically time and phase aligned. That's one of their biggest advantages.

I may be wrong but I don't believe that Karl's statement is correct. Highs come at you quicker where lows are much slower. A flat diaphragm is not timed aligned by looking at its impulse response and other factors. The frequencies are reproduced at the same time but do not arrive at your ears at the same time. I am aware of only a handful of time aligned (and/or phase correct) speakers. Going back through a lot of specs, etc., nobody has ever called an electrostatic time aligned that I can find. They are certainly not phased aligned. Look at the electrostatic impulse response and phase graph. The phase angle is all over the place.