Phantom Gold: A review

[ogs]

Interestingly, Peter Walker himself did not attach much importance to the phase true time aligned nature of the Quad ESL 63, which is more or less a consequence of the design. Few other designs are time-aligned and phase true, e.g. Thief loudspeakers are an exception. It's unclear how important time alignment is to our enjoyment of music. 

It is true that few speakers are time aligned. As long as drive units are mounted on the same flat baffle only Digital Signal Processing can correct for the differences. Few manufacturers of passive speakers are prepared to leave the flat baffle design. Can you imagine Magico with a stepped baffle? Phantoms are quite daring designs in that context!
Some listeners are more sensitive to this than others. In addition to the brands you mention Vandersteen is a proponent of time aligned designs. Dunlavy is another. Also For DSP controlled speakers Avantgarde Zero 1 and Kii Three must be mentioned. And the whole DEQX success is built on time alignment of speakers