To Wayne Parham regarding time alignment. [message #3622] |
Wed, 30 August 2006 15:52 |
Mr Vinyl
Messages: 407 Registered: May 2009
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Illuminati (1st Degree) |
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Hi Wayne, A couple of times you mentioned the silliness of time alignment in speakers. Being a novice in such matters could you please explain to me, why time alignment is snake oil? I mean it seems to make sense to me. Thanks for your time.
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It's not for me to say but [message #3625 is a reply to message #3622] |
Wed, 30 August 2006 18:32 |
wunhuanglo
Messages: 912 Registered: May 2009
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Illuminati (2nd Degree) |
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think about it - 1150 feet per second or so? and the drivers are out of sync by say 6" (to make the numbers simple)? Then the difference in path length results in one signal arriving 0.5/1150 or 0.4 milliseconds later? Not likely to be noticable even by a bat. And then you get to the really silly part - on what axis are the voice coils equidistant from your ears? Maybe you have to put some paint cans under the couch legs to make sure you're on axis.
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Re: To Wayne Parham regarding time alignment. [message #3630 is a reply to message #3622] |
Wed, 30 August 2006 19:23 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18784 Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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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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