In one embodiment, an ultrasound imaging method comprises: providing a probe that includes one or more transducer elements for transmitting and receiving ultrasound waves; generating a sequence of spatially distinct transmit beams which differ in one or more of origin and angle; determining a transmit beam spacing substantially based upon a combination of actual and desired transmit beam characteristics, thereby achieving a faster echo acquisition rate compared to a transmit beam spacing based upon round-trip transmit-receive beam sampling requirements; storing coherent receive echo data, from two or more transmit beams of the spatially distinct transmit beams; combining coherent receive echo data from at least two or more transmit beams to achieve a substantially spatially invariant synthesized transmit focus at each echo location; and combining coherent receive echo data from each transmit firing to achieve dynamic receive focusing at each echo location.