Is my room doomed? Pic

I agree with Onhwy61. What is the angle between the speakers and the listening position?

Does the sound get better with the drapes closed? That would be my first concern is the speakers firing at a reflective backwall. As close as you appear to sit from the speakers it may be your speakers are too big for your room.

Actually I don't think the drapes made much difference. I thought it would, but it actually doesn't for some reason.

As far as speakers too big for my room, well my room's volume is quite big if you consider that it's a semi-open floor plan (about 14 meter x 5.5m x 2.8m, but not completely rectangular so minus some volume). If the speakers are too big I would imagine that there would be too much energy, i.e too bright, too forward? That is certainly not the case. It just sounds veiled, with a soundstage that is between the speakers only. As far as depth, it does get deeper as I pull the speakers out, but it does not get more layered and more detailed. The decays on Diana Krall's voice (the "hhhhaaaaaa") is very short as compared to the same speakers/amps (but diff preamp) at the dealer.

I'm getting a bit skeptical here because on a scale from 5-10, if the dealer is a 10 and I'm a 5, I don't know if it's possible that tuning/tweaking/speaker positioning can lift it up to a 10 when most of the equipment is here. I'm using a borrowed Orpheus Two preamp until the Wavac PR T1 arrives. Yes everything's not 100% broken in including cabling, digital, analogue, speakers, but can that make THAT much of a difference to lift it from a 5 to a 10? Also I do not have any power conditioning as everything plugs straight to 3 dedicated 20amp lines into the wall.

The dealer of course says it will get great with time and maybe switch around some cabling. He probably just wants my money (which he already has a lot of).

Should I wait 3 months for everything to break in, keep tuning/tweaking the speaker placement, etc and hope the sound quality can do quantum leaps?

Enzo618, yr lack of side walls will primarily result in the lack of LF energy. this tends to be the case with very "open" setups (you may want to consider getting subwoofers at later on to supplement yr Rockports). 1st you gotta sort out some fundamental set up issues.

i'm assuming you've placed yr speakers close to the front wall for bass reinforcement. this is fine, but straighten yr speakers (i.e. no toe-in), then try to move yr listening position closer to your speakers (you're getting too much reflection off the rear windows - which causes the muddy sound). there should be a position where bass, mids & HF becomes well balanced (i.e. neither is more prominent than the other). you should also start getting better image depth at this pt. this is most likely the ideal seating distance based on the interaction btw yr speakers & room. next, try moving the speakers closer to one another (still pointing straight ahead) until you get a nice sharp/solid image. it's all abt fine tuning fm this pt. on... experiment with toe-in, speaker tilt, etc. until you're happy with tonal balance, left-right imaging (this should not be a problem for you cause you hv no side wall reflection), & front-back imaging.

since this is not a dedicated listening space, you've also got to be able to live with this layout (if layout isn't acceptable, then you've prob gotta make some compromises in sound quality).

i agree with some of the other posters abt adding an area rug (this will reduce floor-ceiling reflections & also make yr system sound less muddy).

anyway, i think Rockports are really good speakers, so i really hope you manage to get it to work. good luck & try to hv fun when experimenting.

It's the room my friend. You are not crazy. I wouldn't say it's doomed but there are some things you will need to come to terms with. Unless you plan to invest in tuning that room to work better with those speakers, the magic is likely not going to happen. If I were you and were able I'd return the speakers ASAP and begin to investigate speakers that are designed to work better in a room like yours. Also start doing some research on acoustics and basic speaker design to get a better idea of what is feasible in your situation.