Mr Gauder.... grumpy old man who is completely out of his element when talking about DRC.
While it's true that DRC can go wrong when used without knowledge or care it is not enough for blanket statements. In the hand of experts, like fellow countryman Dr. Uli Brüggemann (of Acourate), it is a tool doing exactly what Gauder didn't get right, fixing the time response. Maybe he should arrange a test run with Uli to finally get convinced.
"To pursue that goal, Gauder designs crossovers to aim for phase-coherent behavior across the band. He says he does this the old-school way, like with pencil, paper, and algebra, to solve a set of 48 coupled equations to arrive at target component values, box volume, and other parameters before building prototypes."
IHMO, a clear statement of living in the past. Having decades of experience notwithstanding, no serious loudspeaker designer today gets their job done without using sophisticated CAE tools for design and evaluation/emulation... well, unless you have endless time and can live with preliminary results and maybe get away with a number of tedious and costly physical iteration cycles.
On the same page, no-one serious about their listening at home gets away without properly done DRC... once you've witnessed what it can do there is no way back, even in acoustically well-treated rooms, nice symmetry throughout etc etc.
) so he probably doesn't have golden ears.
