Room acoustics smear directional perception and mask recorded reverberation

Evidence

The acoustics of the listening room may have larger implications on certain perceptual attributes. For example, the perception of spatial characteristics of sound is largely affected by the listening room. The perceived directions of sources may be smeared if the room has strong early reflections, and the perception of reverberation in recorded sound is generally impossible if the listening room has stronger reverberation in itself. In addition, certain non-linear distortions, such as pre-delays and smearing of transients that may occur in lossy perceptual coding, may be more audible in less reverberant rooms. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1816