Thiel Owners

It is my understanding that a 360 degree phase rotation has no audible impact. The audible impact of a phase shift is more likely if the drivers interact and deviate from the baseline phase. My measurements of individual thiel drivers show remarkable near zero phase of the main frequency range of each driver but the xo range usually needs work. As the xo range is wide, this is a challenge. I was not able to validate that the cross over filters cause the cancelling out of the opposite phase effects. I don't know if this is a result of variation in the speakers and/or the limited sample size. What I do know is using digital linear filters is able to come close to the ideal and maintain near zero phase in the xo range and if carefully designed can keep any pre-ringing to a minimum. Comparing the near zero phase speaker with the variable phase speaker seems a subtle audible difference at best. 

Tom, we are not in disagreement. The pre-ringing is only a concern if I use linear filters to reduce the phase differences in the xo range. With digital minimum filters this is no concern but the phase differences are harder to control. I don't get it why dsp does not get more support. It is the easiest way to approach objective transparency and at the same time dial in any frequency or xo characteristic that you may subjectively desire. Instead of experimenting with different cables, amps, or any other hardware, you simply change some settings and switch back and forth to hear the differences.