Does the first reflection point actually matter??

In my experiences the closer it is to the source and the more reflective it is, the more it matters. It adds a bit on non specificity or for lack of a better word phase blurr ( like an out of phase tweeter) 

The most important part is getting to critical mass in absorption, and adding diffusion in the right areas. The laser-line, first reflection points, in my mind, have never born fruit.

I think you are right...

A room is so complex acoustically that it takes our ears to make it beautifully musical not only equations...First point reflections and other measurements make sense in a completely acoustically dedicated engineered ideal room...In normal irregularly and non ideally shaped room with furniture and non dedicated walls, with varied content materials being books, cd or whatever, it takes more than passive materials treatment of first reflection point by the book... :)

A passive room treatment with some balance between absorption and diffusion will do but cannot resolve all the room/speakers topology/location and content problems without speaking about the specificity of each audio system....

I was happy when i begin to create in my dedicated room non electronical ACTIVE room controls with interlinked active and passive resonators of different type all connected to 10 cheap Schumann generators grid...

Imaging, dynamic, soundstage, all is very good now, and a separation of the musical image from the speakers is possible ....

What most people dont realize is that nearfield listening is affected very much by the room acoustic...It is a myth to say that with near listening we are free from the room acoustic...But we cannot know what is missing if we have never experience it in the first place...

I know i listen near field (3feet) and in a more regular position (8 feet) and the sound is so good in my 2 positions that i dont prefer one to another.... Complete different experience with one thing in common : an encompassing soundstage (near listening) or a soundstage free from the speakers location (regular listening) in the 2 cases the sound dont come from the speakers...

And it is a myth to think that tonal accuracy can be separated complety from imaging...This 2 different qualities are ALWAYS related to one another through the acoutical performance of the room...

All my devices and materials are homemade and are very low costs by the way.....i incrementally add something one day after the other for the passive room treatment...Same thing for the more complex creation of the active controls....

Being audiophile is only remembering his listening history  and using it like a tool....

Mahgister,
Please make case for how front ported bookshelf speakers are impacted by room acoustics while listening to them in the near field? 3-4 feet. I don't think my ears are that good. Joe

Mahgister,
Please make case for how front ported bookshelf speakers are impacted by room acoustics while listening to them in the near field? 3-4 feet. I don’t think my ears are that good. Joe

What i just said has nothing to do with my alleged hearing accuracy.... I am not a bat first point...

Second point i know what i speak about because modifications of the room acoustic change the imaging and even the tonal timbre perception, i know it by EXPERIENCE....

Between nearfield and regular listening there is ONLY a degree of variation of the relation, NEVER a complete separation, between the direct waves and the indirect one and their synchronisation.... What we perceive is always a reconstructed "informed wave", that is the sum of these 2, by the brain Fourier analyser... By the way my active controls resonators grids act also like some fixed beacons through these flowing waves helping the brain to recover the information and recreate it from the resulting complex waves of the room coming from many obstructions and devices....Nobody listen only to direct wave in a room nevermind where you seat.......

There is NO case for arguing with experiments and experience....You ears are probably better than mine i am 69 years old but i hear very well for my age, my ears are informed by my listenings history... :)

By the way what i speak about is new, because nobody or almost no one speak about active non electronic acoustical device controls( active or passive linked resonators connected to modified Schumann generator)...

:)

« There is sound in my ears even in a silent room...There is also a pair of ears in the sound wave body» -Groucho Marx

«This is only the blood waving, or silence listening to itself» -Harpo Marx

maghister said:  

And it is a myth to think that tonal accuracy can be separated complety from imaging..

I definitely agree with that. I've had my perception of image depth and  spaciousness explode just by tweaking equalizer settings.