Placing the speakers well out in the room should reduce early reflections. (More distance from a reflective surface equals more delay and more attenuation.) That fits in with the idea of wanting to separate the reflection (echo) from the original event so that your ears/brain will hear them as two separate events and not one muddled-up event.
There are definitely people who don't agree with this approach. Some feel that you're going to have reflections, so you should get your speakers close to the walls so that the direct and reflected events blend together. I think Ted Jordan claims that it's best to have speakers mounted in the wall, and I think this is why he says that.
I'm not positive that phase-coherency leads absolutely to pinpoint imaging. The source to microphone to loudspeaker process has some inherent flaws. Binaural and transaural methods attempt to correct this. (With some success IMO.)
I think it's quite possible that phase distortions could result in the type of soundstage that all the reviewers love to describe. "I could hear that the violinist had a rash on his left elbow. Not the right, but the left..." :-)
I have more to learn about this before trying to come to conclusions.
I do remember hearing a remarkable soundstage from a pair of Acoustats a long time ago. But panel speakers are hardly phase-coherent (nor very linear), so there's something more going on here.
I also once heard a demo of signal processing, played on a boombox, where a helicopter moved toward you from the right front toward your rear left, and seemed to pass overhead as it went! It opens up intriguing possibilities, such as listening to a performance in a "virtual" concert hall and being able to choose where in the hall you "sit."
There are definitely people who don't agree with this approach. Some feel that you're going to have reflections, so you should get your speakers close to the walls so that the direct and reflected events blend together. I think Ted Jordan claims that it's best to have speakers mounted in the wall, and I think this is why he says that.
I'm not positive that phase-coherency leads absolutely to pinpoint imaging. The source to microphone to loudspeaker process has some inherent flaws. Binaural and transaural methods attempt to correct this. (With some success IMO.)
I think it's quite possible that phase distortions could result in the type of soundstage that all the reviewers love to describe. "I could hear that the violinist had a rash on his left elbow. Not the right, but the left..." :-)
I have more to learn about this before trying to come to conclusions.
I do remember hearing a remarkable soundstage from a pair of Acoustats a long time ago. But panel speakers are hardly phase-coherent (nor very linear), so there's something more going on here.
I also once heard a demo of signal processing, played on a boombox, where a helicopter moved toward you from the right front toward your rear left, and seemed to pass overhead as it went! It opens up intriguing possibilities, such as listening to a performance in a "virtual" concert hall and being able to choose where in the hall you "sit."