Redirecting reflections creates uneven hot spots while absorption shortens reverberation

Evidence

If a steady tone, such as an organ note, is played in the space then after a period of time the reverberant sound will reach a constant level because at that point the sound power input balances the power lost by absorption in the space. This means that the steady-state level will be higher in rooms that have a small amount of absorption, compared with rooms that have a lot of absorption. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1781 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Real reflections are attenuated enough to tame comb filtering drastically; Engineered diffusers attenuate the specular reflection toward the listener by up to 20 dB; Waves transitioning from bounded to unbounded space create interfering reflections (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Physical sound absorption can be strong enough to measurably alter room reverberation #corroborates (0.90)
• Room absorption determines the steady-state level of reverberant sound #expands (0.85) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1781
• Absorbing first reflections cascades to attenuate the whole reflected sound field #expands (0.82)
• Room absorption shrinks mode bandwidth and flattens standing wave peaks #expands (0.78)