ETC spike heights correlate inversely with actual audibility of reflections

Evidence

Some people have mistakenly taken this to mean that the delayed sound is masked—it isn’t. Within the precedence effect fusion interval, there is no masking; all of the reflected (delayed) sounds are audible, making their contributions to timbre and loudness, but the early reflections simply are not heard as spatially separate events. They are perceived as coming from the direction of the first sound—this, and only this, is the essence of the “fusion.” The widely held belief that there is a “Haas fusion zone,” approximately the first 20 ms after the direct sound, within which everything gets innocently combined, is simply untrue. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 840 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Audible effects of reflections require spectral comparison across time-domain spikes; Reducing a reflection spike on a time-domain display can create no audible improvement; The precedence effect suppresses spatial identity of reflections, not their audibility — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 840

Related

• The precedence effect suppresses spatial identity of reflections, not their audibility (similarity 0.86)
• Late-arriving reflections within the fusion zone are audible but merge into one directional image (similarity 0.86)
• A 30-40 ms delay separates fusion from echo in the precedence effect (similarity 0.85)
• Precedence fusion is not masking; all reflections remain audible (similarity 0.85)
• Time-domain reflection displays conceal spectral content and mislead comparison (similarity 0.84)
• Precedence fusion suppresses spatial perception but never masks the delayed sound (similarity 0.84)
• Broadband ETCs are untrustworthy whenever reflections differ spectrally from direct sound (similarity 0.82)
• Removing conflicting reflections improves perception of low-level audio detail (similarity 0.81)
• First reflections must arrive within 30 ms to avoid being heard as echoes (similarity 0.81)
• ETC displays can misreport reflection levels by about 20 dB versus audibility (similarity 0.80)
• Dense early reflections sum perceptually to sound livelier than energy measurements predict (similarity 0.80)
• Natural room reflections are too weak and early to please listeners of reproduced speech. (similarity 0.80)
• Room reverberation barely affects early reflection audibility but strongly elevates late-reflection thresholds (similarity 0.80)
• The precedence effect reduces masking from reflections in rooms (similarity 0.80)
• Loudness-time functions reveal echoes and reverberation better than level-time ones (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The precedence effect suppresses spatial identity of reflections, not their audibility #corroborates (0.85) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 840