Ever discover cheapo speakers actually sound...

Mapman,
Small, 11' X 15', heavily damped on all surfaces: ceiling all four walls, very quiet room.
But I agree that the room is too small!
I may do a trial with the ohms.

I suspect Pedrillo is listening in the manner Almarg mentioned earlier. Pedrillo even states he has an optimistic listening bias.

I listen to bad recordings on my high resolution system using the same bias, you can find the good in just about anything if you seek it. He is simply listening in the musical rather than analytical mode.

This attitude is likely a result of diminished expectations as well. I've substituted inferior equipment into my main system a number of times, always somewhat surprised by how good it sounds. Expectation may be the primary driving force in determing how we listen, and largely influences our next move on the audiophile equipment merry-go-round.

You might just need a good but smaller, more compact speaker design in a room that size.

For Ohms, I'd try the Ohm Micro Walsh Talls in a room that size first, I think, particularly if you already have a sub that might be added. Ohm recommends these mainly for more near field listening in a variety of room sizes I believe.

The Ohms are bottom ported though which could work against your desire for isolation. Placing them on concrete slabs or something similar could help. Loosely plugging the ports can be an option as well in more lively rooms that are less isolated naturally.

Both my larger and smaller Ohm Walsh speaks are located in my basement currently on a concrete floor with thin carpeting and padding and this provides an extensive amount of natural acoustic isolation.

Sns, yes I do and prefer things that way.
But I still recognize when things are just awful or not good enough. I must have certain priorities that I don't fully understand.
I'm sure others agree when I say we all have different priorities. That probably is part of our preferences in flavor of sound.
But why do showrooms fall short if that is the case. I remember enjoying most setups untill I brought my system up and got to hear the mbl's, which I should probably revisit.

Pedrillo, I've always noticed your decoupling technique with the Merlins. I believe what you say about decoupling them as I hung a cd player with fish line from the ceiling some years ago, best isolation I ever acheived with a digital source.

Still, don't we voice our systems based on inherent isolation of certain components, ie. my speakers sit on a suspended floor, ie. resonate more than optimum. I then increase the focus on the rest of my equipment through various isolation schemes in order to balance out this greater than optimum resonance in the speakers. In the end I get optimum results from balancing resonances. On the other hand, perhaps not, perhaps you can only fully optimize your system by hanging all equipment in space, ie. optimizing each and every piece. I think I need an anti-gravity listening room :-)