I spent a lot of time researching this topic, and I highly respect Toole's work, however, he is one human being. There are many other scientists and audio engineering experts that have been around just as long, and provide factual proof that proper acoustics in a home theater environment are every bit as important than in a recording studio.
I can assure you I have lost no lateral reflection issues by placing ONE 2x4 panel at each first reflection location. There is truth about over deadening a room, that is not what I have done.
My sound stage is still VERY wide, and the vocals are dead center and very tight and clear. What your doing is flattening the frequency response in the lower regions, say 60hz to 300hz, high frequencies are not affected.
Since this topic comes up all the time, I ran a little test not long ago. I had 3 friends sitting in the front row. I blind folded them. Over the next hour I played a variety of classical, rock, blues, soft pop, etc. music. I would play the same track twice, randomly removing my side panels which are hung by wire and light weight. The users would raise their hands and either hold up 1 or 2 fingers, telling me which time the song sounded the best.
Out of about 10 songs, there was only 3 occasions where one of the guests picked the wrong song.
In follow up, I've posted my graphs many times and not going to do it again, but it was pretty obvious how the frequency response improved by adding the bass traps in the corners.
