Leotis, and Mirolab,
A live reflective space will still be affected by directional speakers, Almost all loudspeakers even with horn loading of the tweeter still throw out an abundance of energy.
If you remember physics energy can not be created or destroyed.
You can turn vibrational energy into heat by absorption.
You can direct the sound of a directional loudspeaker toward the listener however, unless the listener's body is a complete broad based absorber sound frequencies will still bounce off his body, any hard reflective surfaces and the floor, hit the ceiling and bounce back.
If the room sounds live it is called slap echo and you have to use absorbtive materials to combat that.
Sandydennis, glad to hear they work well in your room, a small uneven room is not a large reflective room, totally different set of problems.
Bryanbull, did you notice we were saying the same thing the D'appolito configuration was designed to eliminate ceiling and floor bounce however, even a speaker with a narrowed vertical dispersion can't eliminate floor bounced reflections.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ