A review of the effects of reflections on perceptions of sound quality, direction, image size, spaciousness, speech intelligibility, etc., lending perspective to the matter of which elements might be perceptually important in multichannel sound reproduction systems. In general they appear to be less problematic than is commonly believed. This, combined with the considerable ability of listeners to adapt to certain auditory influences of small rooms, brings into question several popular practices in the design of loudspeakers and listening rooms. Anechoic measurements on loudspeakers that have been done in a manner that anticipates sound reproduction in rooms can be used to calculate a figure of merit. The correlation between the calculated ratings, and those resulting from double-blind listening tests, is high: 0.86. This has implications for the acoustical treatment of rooms, and to the necessity for controlling the sound field at low frequencies. Only then can there be any assurance that the art in recordings will be heard by consumers as it was created in control rooms.