"They are here" vs. "You are there"

We are accustomed to thinking of reflections as causing coloration and degrading clarity, and philosophically we don’t like the room adding to the recording something that was not originally there. But if the reverberant field is done right (which is something we can come back to), timbre is more natural and clarity is actually improved! That’s right, controlled tests have shown that speech intelligibility is improved by normal in-room reflections. Apparently the ear is better able to decipher complex sounds when it gets multiple “looks” in the form of reflections. The direction that reflections arrive from plays a role as well. Reflections that arrive from the same direction as the direct sound are more likely to be perceived as coloration than are reflections that arrive from the sides. And, reflections that arrive from the sides are more effective at imparting a sense of spaciousness and envelopment. One benefit of my recommended 45-degree toe-in is that it ensures a relatively large proportion of the reverberant energy will be arriving from the sides. The ear derives tonal balance from a weighted average of the incoming sounds, so the reverberant energy plays a significant role there. When the spectral balance of the reflections is very close to that of the first-arrival sound, perceived timbre is richer and more vivid. This is why we listen to grand pianos and choral groups in lively recital halls rather than in thickly-padded rooms. In my opinion the goal of high-end audio is to recreate, as closely as is practical, the perception of listening to live music.