Not always! My kick drum sounds better from the throne.
This is entirely just dependent on the design of the kick and the room through... the interaction of bass modes both inside and outside the drum. Nothing to do with the first pressure impulse, which we can't hear on its own anyway.
We hear WAVEFORMS, a continuous movement of energy, not a single plus-or-minus pressure burst. I'm pretty sure one would be completely indistinguishable from the other, if all other factors were equal.