Speakers that sound great in terrible rooms

 

a well energized, spectrally-correct reverberant field actually enhances the clarity of complex music

That's it exactly.

Toole theorizes that the ear is better able to decipher complex music signals when it is given "multiple looks" via multiple spectrally-correct reflections.

This is the best explanation I’ve heard, and is probably similar to cupping your ears.

Also why having a diffusor in the middle of the wall behind the speakers seems to have caught on.

Heaudio123 wrote: " I would argue that unless the speaker has poor/uneven off-axis response, then it is the room..."

Totally agree!!

Heaudio123: "...and I don’t agree with your argument about Omnidirectionals amplifying room irregularity, as they actually have the opposite effect."

My wording was obviously poor; I am NOT arguing that omnis amplify room irregularities! Quite the opposite in fact. Here is what I should have said:

IF room irregularity was the problem THEN omnis would be a bad choice for "problematic" rooms; but omnis are clearly NOT a bad choice for such rooms, thus we can conclude that room irregularity is not the problem.

(In terms of syllogistic logic, my argument takes this form: "If A then B; not B, therefore not A".)

Having hopefully cleared up the above-mentioned poor communication on my part, I agree with pretty much everything else you have posted in this thread. In particular you mentioned line source speakers... ime the 45-degree-pattern SoundLab fullrange electrostats work extremely well in problematic rooms, given sufficient distance to the wall behind them.

Duke

"If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough." - Gene LeBell (off topic, but he’s the old guy who choked out Steven Seagal. Twice. In the same day.) 

That bit of trivia just made my day.

Thanks Duke! I always enjoy (and more importantly, learn something from) your posts.