Real-room reflections are attenuated and delayed, not equal-level and immediate.

Evidence

If this is a scare tactic, it works. This certainly looks ugly. … However, in listening rooms the delayed sounds are reflections, and these will occur at much longer delays and they will be attenuated in amplitude by propagation loss (about −6 dB/double-distance) and absorption at the reflecting surfaces (can be anything from near zero for a hard flat surface to several dB for a deep, fluffy resistive absorber). — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 661

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the author’s broader theme across the book that textbook depictions oversimplify real acoustic behavior in rooms — also links to audio engineering critiques of oversimplified ‘comb filtering’ claims.