Echoes go unnoticed while unrelated simultaneous sounds are localized normally

Evidence

Imagine a loudspeaker embedded in the wall, which sends out a completely distinct and unrelated sound, equally loud, just as the sound is arriving at the wall and reflecting toward the listener. The reflected sound and distinct sound will arrive simultaneously at the listener’s ear, and from the same direction. The reflected sound will go unnoticed, but the distinct sound will be duly noted as coming from the wall! There can be no doubt that autocorrelation plays a role in this system—sound that is repeating a just-heard pattern is arriving by a longer path. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2532

Categorization

• DEFINE: The wall-loudspeaker thought experiment isolates exactly what the precedence effect keys on: pattern repetition via a longer path, i.e. autocorrelation.
• SEED: A clean demonstration anyone can perform — could anchor an explainer on why concert halls don’t sound like you’re standing in a mirrored room.