Why do only US makers focus on time coherency?

Shayner,

Wake up & do some reading!!! Educate yourself before making incorrect rebuttals!

Hi, I'm not a very technical person, but what do you think of a full range electrostatic design, such as Soundlab or Martin Logan CLS? Is such a design by definition time and phase coherent? Or how about (dipolar) line sources, like the Pipedreams or some loudspeakers from Genesis?

dazzdax

It is my (admittedly very limited) understanding that electrostatics are coherent. I remember hearing some large Martin Logans at a dealer in the UK and being impressed that the soundstage was incredibly wide. However the imaging was very diffuse within the soundstage ... nowhere near as pinpoint as my spicas.

Of coure there are those that say you never get imaging so precise in real live performances ... I assume that they must only have one ear in the middle of their foreheads :-)

(Remember the joke about Davy Crockett's three ears ... left ear, right ear and wild front ear ?)

Sean - here is the link to the thread I started last week.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1090433671&read&3&4&

Personally, I'm struggling with the choice between time and phase based designs and others such as Ohm, Dueval, Gallo and others that throw a much wider sweet spot at the listener. Those 360 degree despersion designs sound the same in almost any location within a room and at the same time are very accurate at imaging and have excellent dynamics. For those of us who don't have a 4 walled dedicated listening environment, it would appear a Walsh type design may be the best solution. But then again I'm not sold yet. I own Hales T-5's which are time and phase coherent and they have a pretty large sweet spot and sound damn good whether I'm standing in the kitchen or right on-axis.

If you were to close your eyes at a live concert, you'd be surprised at how hard it is to pinpoint the position of instruments/voices. With your eyes open, however, it's quite easy. (A lot of things are easier with your eyes open.) Good imaging at home helps to make up for the lack of visual cues.

Of course, good imaging is a function of a number of factors, including the recording and speaker-room interaction, as well as the listener's own sense of what it _should_ sound like. I'd be wary of any dogmatic claims that "X" type of speaker is the best for imaging.