Reflections that appear as destructive comb filtering actually create perceived spaciousness.

Evidence

At the beginning of this chapter it was noted that when listening to a single reflection in an anechoic chamber the dominant subjective impression was one of spaciousness. If one measured what was being heard it would show evidence of acoustical interference comb filtering. Viewed from this perspective what we hear in any room is a complex set of comb filters and we find pleasure in listening in these spaces. How can something that looks so bad sound so good? The explanation is in Figure 1.5—we listen with two ears and a brain, the binaural hearing system, and we measure with an omnidirectional microphone. Delayed sounds arriving from directions other than the direct sound are perceived as components of spaciousness. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 666

Categorization

• DEFINE: Positions comb filtering as a monaural measurement artifact that binaural hearing reframes as spaciousness.