Does the first reflection point actually matter??

ok, after reading the OP’s. he’s full of cough cough
clueless dude when it comes to acoustic. hahaha.
I suspect he read Toole "studies" then drink the cool aid. worst, you think you understand room acoustic now.
Eric, yes first reflection points are a "myth" like you say. you can sleep soundly now.

EDIT:
" Wow, @lemonhaze you misread my original post and misread my "preaching to the choir" post and now are all mad about both.

Let’s just agree to disagree and move on."

I guess I did too eric misunderstand your OP. you begin the thread with "1st reflection is a myth", then finally go on to admit you know close to nothing to "should noobs buy a mic or ask experts at GIK".

Understanding the basic of room acoustic honestly took me a good week of reading, asking experts at gearslutz, GIK, in order to simply understand the basics of it. I wasnt sure if I should trust GIK alone, so went my own way and must have read at least 100 hours on room acoustic subject. Gik are mostly right btw. I personally think they sell too thin panels however, DIY is much much much better value for money if you want to create a FRZ (free reflective zone). 

for the OP

Are you sure you have well determined the 1st reflection points? have you treated all 1st reflection points? meaning the 1st reflection at the ceiling, at both side walls, behind your listening position and off the floor?

ime, even just treating the side walls, then removing the side-panels, makes a tremendous difference. but the magic happens when all 5 first reflections points have been dealt with.

as the post prior to mine mention, make sure your panels are thick enough with good fiberglass or real material used from the likes of GIK. carpets actually make thingrs worst cause they absorb upper mids and treble, but do nothing in the bass and mids. ideally, you want your 1st reflection panels as thick as possible (mine are 8 inch thick). the goal of room treatment is to acheive even decay (ETC) at all frequencies, but carpets will make just the opposite (will absorb the highs, but do nothing in the bass therefore it really doesnt acheive the goal of even decay at all FR)

"In a modest, average home listening environment, you can’t do much for the acoustics with just 4 panels, no matter how ideally placed they are."

why 4 panels? 2 for each side walls, one for behind the listening position, 1 for ceiling (but really a cloud needs to be at least 2-3 panel wide) and 1 for the floor= minimum of 5.
not sure who told you 4 (I guess some dont treat the floor)

the definition of FRZ is at least covering the 5 early reflection points. so only 4 panel is not reallya chieving a free-reflective zone (FRZ)

" Part II:
The overall decay rate of the energy in the room will probably so obscure the original and early reflected signals requiring a minimum critical mass of room treatment, or minimum sound field quality that must be achieved before those original 4 panels mean anything. Control the reverberation time first, and with 4 panels you are barely getting started."

this is quite confusing. early reflections are well established to be detrimental to SQ. secondary reflections (which you refer here as "sound field") have been well established to actually be desired for good sound. hence some studio room desing with trying to actually reflect the secondary reflections to the listening position.

" Part III:

"Once the overall sound field is treated, the _exact_ placement of the original 4 panels. becomes moot. You can move around the room and everything sounds good, no matter where you are, and no matter if the current reflection points (which change based on your position) are covered or not."

the definition of a early reflection must be located at one spot. its that one spot that determine the early reflection points. if you want to cover early reflections with multiple listening position that are far apart from each other, this is a almost impossible (unless you have every listening position on the same couch for example, there youd just have to have wider panels to englobe every different listening position) task as each different listening position will have its own different early reflection.

" Part IV:

"While the overall idea of our ears seeing / hearing mid-treble frequencies as light beams is attractive, it is my experience that even then we hear not photonically but statistically. Covering up that magic reflection point to 1 ideal seated location is a trivial if not imperceptible change. Treat early reflections statistically, not precisely. "

what a bunch of baloney. early reflection points are physics. its not magic, they are a fixed point related to the listening position.

about the behind the speakers panels. by definition, there’s no early reflections coming off behind the speakers (unless your speakers are toed in 45 degree). those "behind the speaker reflections" are called SBIR and its a entire different discussion.

just to add a bit, early reflections are those over the 300hz barrier. bass frequencies being omnidirectional are not related to early reflections. for bass, you need deep bass traps, as deep as possible.

sorry if yesterday ive acted a bit rude, in retrospect it was. sorry