Anyone else notice this Gnex speaker anomaly?

[blizzardskier]

Alright, so just a little background on a little anomaly I noticed with the back speaker on the Gnex. I work in a kitchen and will occasionally play music off of my phone, I don't have a set of aftermarket speakers readily available at work to plug in however so I usually just play it off of the hardware speaker with some minor Volume+ tweeks. A couple of weeks ago though I noticed, while my phone was resting on our stainless steel prep table, that if I propped my phone up against the back of the table so that the speaker was aimed diagonally at the stainless steel corner formed at the back of the table it produced a noticeably louder and more clear sound than it would if i rested it in such a way that the speaker was just projecting directly into the room. I didn't think much of it til today, because I just figured it was resonating off the table in such a way that the table was amplifying the sound. Today however I played with the anomaly a little more and found that just about any surface that is even pseudo reflective to sound waves seems to amplify and improve the sound of the speaker. I just happened to notice at my house, that when i started playing music off of the phone, that I again got a louder and clearer sound while i was holding the phone than when I had the speaker pointed at me, aka the speaker sounded better when it had to bounce off of the concave surface of my palm holding the phone. this led me to test it off of some other hard and psuedo concave (usually corners) surfaces yielding the same result every time. Noticing this I have a few questions about it:

1. Has anyone else noticed this little anomaly?
2. Can anyone explain why it seems to work?
3. And finally is this something happening by design or just a happy accident?

P.S.
I know a lot of my descriptions will be confusing without pictures, but unfortunately I don't have a second phone to take pictures with. I can try to explain a little better if anyone has questions, and I'll see if I can manage to get some pictures, but until then try to bear with my original explanation.

 

[templetonryecy]

Interesting. Been following these forums to learn more about volume issues with the Nexus. Would be curious to know if anyone else is experiencing what the OP is!

 

[menelfloss]

Yes sound bounces and can amplify given the right characteristics. Ever play a harmonica in a stairwell?
Cool that you notice this stuff and use it to your advantage.

 

[orlanka]

I think this has to do more with the characteristics of sound waves than any special design of the phone. I find that the same is true of watching a movie on my Nook Color, cupping my hand behind the speaker produces better sound as it is bouncing back at me rather than traveling off, unblocked.

 

[yosteve]

My touch pro had it's speaker in the bottom on the front, if I wanted it louder I would put my thumb over the speaker.

It would bounce the sound waves back into the phone and use the phone body as the exit point, it would come out the buttons. Always thought it was interesting.