Vandersteen HiFi Speakers: Creating the Most Natural Sound Possible

June 1, 2023

How Time & Phase Coherence Makes for Incredible Audio

At our hifi speakers store in Atlanta, many people ask us, “Which speakers are the best?” That can be a tricky question to answer because while some speakers are undeniably higher quality than others, once you get into the high-end range, a lot of what makes a speaker ‘the best’ comes down to preference.

Some high-end speakers are optimal for home theaters, while others are great for a stereo listening room. Some people want a dynamic, punchy sound, while others want a more relaxed listening experience. But overall, when it comes to “the best,” Vandersteen should be part of that conversation.

Vandersteen is a high-end audio brand created by Richard Vandersteen in California. Vandersteen designs all the drivers himself without using pieces from any other manufacturers—and today, Vandersteen produces some of the most incredible speakers in the world.

What sets Vandersteen apart from other speaker brands? It’s its time and phase coherence. Here’s what that means and why it’s important.

Time and Phase Coherence

What does it mean? Essentially, time and phase coherence, or alignment, means that as a speaker reproduces sound frequencies, they’ll all add up in perfect alignment to create the closest reproduction of the original waveform.

However, perfect alignment is not usually the case. Consider that all sound frequencies in a speaker play on different drivers. For example, the mid-range driver plays sounds similar to the human voice. The subwoofer plays low bass notes. Since frequencies are split into different drivers, the drivers can become misaligned and play out-of-step from each other. This creates a flat frequency response that can’t accurately replicate musical waveforms.

Why Is It Important?

Speakers with accurate time and phase coherence preserve the timbre and placement of instruments for a more realistic sound. Time-and-phase-accurate speakers preserve the entire waveform, so the music sounds like it really did when it was played live. Time and phase alignment is incredibly difficult to achieve, which is why most audio manufacturers ignore it and focus instead on amplitude.

How Vandersteen Does It

All speakers have crossovers—a component that divides audio signals into upper or lower thresholds. The crossover supplies each driver (subwoofer, mid-range, or tweeter drivers) with the corresponding audio signals. For example, a crossover sends high frequencies to the tweeter and never to any lower drivers.

Vandersteen speakers use a first-order crossover, which plays a wider range of sound frequencies. This is the only way to achieve true time-and-phase-coherence. The Vandersteen drivers fire in perfect time and phase, using the best materials to achieve this. As a result music sounds incredibly realistic, detailed, and consistent—an incomparable listening experience.

Setting Up Vandersteen Speakers

Vandersteen speakers are impressively exacting—they do what they’re designed to do. However, achieving this optimal sound does involve a painstaking setup process. The physical position and room acoustics are major components of sound quality. Our team at HiFi Buys can help assemble your Vandersteen speakers for the maximum listening experience.

Vandersteen audio is top of the line. If you’d like to hear the incredible sound quality for yourself, visit our showroom in Atlanta, GA, and try out the hifi speakers! Even if you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, everyone’s welcome to come in and hear some great music.