Room treatment-I was afraid of this


There I was with a dedicated room-not ideal being nearly square and a less than 8' ceiling-and barely adequate music, not awful but the system had sounded better. I tried moving things about some with differing results but nothing satisfying. Part of the problem was moving from a 30x35 foot room with an 18' ceiling. I was used to the speakers being well out into the room, far apart and sitting pretty far away. I used the odd integer matrix method promoted by Vandersteen but hadn't considered either placing them closer to the wall or moving near field. Nick at GIK recommended both, as well as some furniture rearranging that made a very pleasant difference. That was all the encouragement I needed to order bass traps, 1st and 2nd reflection panels and front and rear wall treatments. Installed them by about 4pm Monday and listened until 2 am, back at it last night from 3pm-1am. It's just as so many have said, this is a serious component upgrade. It is matched in scale only when I went from Vandersteen 2CE's to Chapman T-77SE's. Not a single aspect of the listening experience that isn't enhanced. So now the problem; I suppose a lot of the glowing stuff folks make of cables, power cords, fuses, and on and on also make significant differences. How long can it be before I'm off and running on that stuff?
128x128wideload
Nonoise, congrats on ending up with two speakers you love. I move mine along to friends and family and get to hear them occasionally. Sliding the headrest up and down on my chair is an adventure in sound shaping. Hi Douglas, yes it's me still thoroughly enjoying the Chapman's. I hope you and your family are well.  Of course I trust your recommendation and will make cords my next purchase, although it'll be awhile. Your review of the Exogal lead me to that piece and I am very happy with it. Milpai, I consider the wall I'm facing the front wall. I know others refer to it as the rear as it's behind the speakers.  
wideload,
I am with you on the front wall. My loudspeakers are 5 feet from front wall. And 38% would roughly mean 7 feet from front wall. I am not sure if that would be ideal for the listening position, since I would only be 2 feet away from them.
Grover Huffman cables are great value, don't worry about those, but agree that stock power cables should be upgraded.

If it's something you could live with trying an across the corner setup is worth trying on a rainy day. The is often the ticket in a squarish room. Cheers,
Spencer 
Put bass traps in the corners of the room.  Personally I think high end cables are hocus pocus.  If you can't hear the difference stop right there and re-educate your ears.