Speaker Reflectors

Today I was sitting back listening to Jethro Tull's Passion Play CD on my smaller kitchen stereo. (Yamaha amp/Klipsch bookshelves) and I noticed that my left ear was hearing sound which seemed to be clearly coming from the left rear corner of the room, but not on the right side.
I'm not talking about echoes, but very clear sound, as if another speaker was placed there. (there was none)
A friend last week also mentioned that he heard the same effect.
I looked left and noticed that my microwave was sittng just about ear level at an angle and wondered if it was just bouncing off the front door to my left ear.
This got me curious, so I found a rectangular desk mat and placed it on my workbench, also at ear level and tried to mimic the hight of the microwave's position.
Damn if it didn't work !
Now I was getting this rather enhanced stereo image, that really made the system sound better.
I know, normally we try and keep sound from reflecting in a room (unless you own Bose) but I feel that I want to experiment further with this phenomena.
This probably only works in a single focused listening point situation, but that's the way my system is set up.
Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a couple of those styrofoam and poster board laminates and try tuning the corners in my listening room.
If that doesn't work, maybe I'll buy another microwave. (heh heh)