Posted by Wayne Parham [ 70.234.147.233 ] on August 30, 2006 at 20:23:34:

In Reply to: To Wayne Parham regarding time alignment. posted by Mr Vinyl on August 30, 2006 at 16:52:38:

It's not silly, but it also is impossible. Reactive systems are, by nature, moved in time with respect to resistive systems. The drivers are reactive, the cabinet is reactive and many of the components in the audio stream are reactive. So time alignment is impossible.

What is possible, is near alignment. This is what is important. If you can keep sound sources within 1/4λ of each other, then they'll sum properly and won't exhibit frequency anomalies. This is possible, and it's desirable.

To tell the truth, most good loudspeakers sum true at least on-axis. If they don't, it shows up as a spiked dip in the response curve. But no loudspeakers are actually time aligned through the audio band. Use of the phrase "time aligned" is just sales rhetoric.

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