In my opinion working "with the room" rather than "against the room" matters a great deal... especially in small, lively room. Two things come to mind:
First, we want the reverberant sound to have essentially the same spectral balance as the direct sound. When the reflections sound like the first-arrival sound the timbre tends to be nice and rich, assuming the frequency response is good.
Second, in general early reflections are much more likely to be degrade clarity and/or image precision (including depth) than later ones, so if possible we’d like to be able to "aim" the speakers to avoid strong early sidewall reflections. Ime the smaller the room, the more critical this becomes.
Two technologies which can meet both criteria without reliance on room treatments are: Dipole speakers, and horn speakers... in both cases, assuming they are "done right".
A dipole speaker with a well-behaved, uniform radiation pattern can generate a reverberant field which is spectrally correct, and can be aimed to avoid strong early sidewall reflections. IF they can be placed fairly far out from the wall - five feet is my recommendation - then the backwave energy arrives after a long enough time delay that it is beneficial.
A low-coloration constant-directivity horn loudspeaker can likewise be aimed to avoid early sidewall reflections, while offering greater placement flexibility than a dipole since it doesn’t need "breathing room" for the backwave. Horn speakers tend to be much more efficient than other types, which means they must either be quite large to produce good low bass, or else they usually need help from subwoofers for the bottom octave or two.
In an ideal setup with either speaker type, we can minimize the "small room signature" cues of the playback room while effectively presenting the spatial cues on the recording. Thus even in a fairly small and lively room, we can hear "more of the recording" and "less of the room."
Disclaimer: I am commercially involved with both types of speakers, which means that I voted for these ideas with my wallet, and you are of course invited to take this with as many grains of salt as you like.
Duke
First, we want the reverberant sound to have essentially the same spectral balance as the direct sound. When the reflections sound like the first-arrival sound the timbre tends to be nice and rich, assuming the frequency response is good.
Second, in general early reflections are much more likely to be degrade clarity and/or image precision (including depth) than later ones, so if possible we’d like to be able to "aim" the speakers to avoid strong early sidewall reflections. Ime the smaller the room, the more critical this becomes.
Two technologies which can meet both criteria without reliance on room treatments are: Dipole speakers, and horn speakers... in both cases, assuming they are "done right".
A dipole speaker with a well-behaved, uniform radiation pattern can generate a reverberant field which is spectrally correct, and can be aimed to avoid strong early sidewall reflections. IF they can be placed fairly far out from the wall - five feet is my recommendation - then the backwave energy arrives after a long enough time delay that it is beneficial.
A low-coloration constant-directivity horn loudspeaker can likewise be aimed to avoid early sidewall reflections, while offering greater placement flexibility than a dipole since it doesn’t need "breathing room" for the backwave. Horn speakers tend to be much more efficient than other types, which means they must either be quite large to produce good low bass, or else they usually need help from subwoofers for the bottom octave or two.
In an ideal setup with either speaker type, we can minimize the "small room signature" cues of the playback room while effectively presenting the spatial cues on the recording. Thus even in a fairly small and lively room, we can hear "more of the recording" and "less of the room."
Disclaimer: I am commercially involved with both types of speakers, which means that I voted for these ideas with my wallet, and you are of course invited to take this with as many grains of salt as you like.
Duke