Reverberation destroys the phase information that could encode meaning

Evidence

The capability of the phase spectrum of sound to transmit information between humans in typical acoustic conditions is now discussed. As an example, the signals in Figure 11.9 have equal magnitude spectra but different phase spectra. In principle, such a prominent change in the temporal structure of the signal could be used to encode some meaning into communicated sounds, such as speech sounds. However, real listening conditions with a relatively distant source contain at least some reflections from nearby surfaces and potentially some reverberation. The impulse response of such a space corresponds to a very complex transfer function, Figure 11. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1262