I think the apprehension about digital room correction is misguided. Analogue is by no means superior (that is an audiophile myth).
Room acoustics should be divided into two areas: above and below the so called Schroeder frequency, in your case probably about 130 Hz. Above that, all you can realisticaly do is apply a bit of damping with rugs, bookcases etc. Below the Schroeder frequency the resonance peaks (and dips) are so far apart and so large that they can be distinguished quite easily, and greatly disturb the sound, with boomy bass and slow decay (hence the term slow, which in reality refers to the room rather than the speakers). If you look at the in-room frequency response of speakers the deviations from a flat response are truly horrendous (easily +/- 10 dB, compared to +/- 0.2 dB for good electronics), and completely mask any imperfections earlier in the chain. So something has to be done.
Full range main speakers have the disadvantage that they have to be located for best midrange response and that is not necessarily best for bass. So many people prefer separate subwoofers that are designed for deep bass, and can be located for best bass response. However, just one sub will still give huge peaks and dips. Hence the method to smoothen this with multiple smaller subs. See here for a clear introduction and further links: http://www.acousticfrontiers.com/20101029using-multiple-subwoofers-to-improve-bass-the-welti-devanti...
On top of this, equalization is still very useful, and more succesful with multiple subs than with one, because the peaks are lower, and because the equalization will work over a larger listening area. With one sub, the response will only be correct in one listening position.
There are various ways to equalize the response. The easiest is to use a DSpeaker Antimode 8033 for the subwoofers. It is an automatic system that analyses the in-room response of your subs, and then designs and applies a correction curve. see here: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/dspeaker-anti-mode-8033-dsp-subwoofer-equalizer-tas-204/ I use one with great success.
The alternative is to do all the hard work youself, with the REW software and a calibrated microphone. Correction can then be achieved with a miniDSP unit. This is a bit cheaper, but I would not bother (REW is quite hard to use).
DSpeaker is about to introduce a complete preamplifier/DAC/room eq system, the X4, but that is expensive and may not be necessary.
Finally, and perhaps not of much use to you, but dipole speakers like my Quad electrostats suffer far less from room modes, and hence have an exceptionally clean sound. However, they are huge, and need space (at least 2-3 feet for the smaller 2815 model, and more for the bigger 2915) behind them (but not on the side). If you can find room for them, they are gloriously absent: you hear music rather than speakers. They also have dynamic limitations, but should be fine in a room like yours.
Room acoustics should be divided into two areas: above and below the so called Schroeder frequency, in your case probably about 130 Hz. Above that, all you can realisticaly do is apply a bit of damping with rugs, bookcases etc. Below the Schroeder frequency the resonance peaks (and dips) are so far apart and so large that they can be distinguished quite easily, and greatly disturb the sound, with boomy bass and slow decay (hence the term slow, which in reality refers to the room rather than the speakers). If you look at the in-room frequency response of speakers the deviations from a flat response are truly horrendous (easily +/- 10 dB, compared to +/- 0.2 dB for good electronics), and completely mask any imperfections earlier in the chain. So something has to be done.
Full range main speakers have the disadvantage that they have to be located for best midrange response and that is not necessarily best for bass. So many people prefer separate subwoofers that are designed for deep bass, and can be located for best bass response. However, just one sub will still give huge peaks and dips. Hence the method to smoothen this with multiple smaller subs. See here for a clear introduction and further links: http://www.acousticfrontiers.com/20101029using-multiple-subwoofers-to-improve-bass-the-welti-devanti...
On top of this, equalization is still very useful, and more succesful with multiple subs than with one, because the peaks are lower, and because the equalization will work over a larger listening area. With one sub, the response will only be correct in one listening position.
There are various ways to equalize the response. The easiest is to use a DSpeaker Antimode 8033 for the subwoofers. It is an automatic system that analyses the in-room response of your subs, and then designs and applies a correction curve. see here: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/dspeaker-anti-mode-8033-dsp-subwoofer-equalizer-tas-204/ I use one with great success.
The alternative is to do all the hard work youself, with the REW software and a calibrated microphone. Correction can then be achieved with a miniDSP unit. This is a bit cheaper, but I would not bother (REW is quite hard to use).
DSpeaker is about to introduce a complete preamplifier/DAC/room eq system, the X4, but that is expensive and may not be necessary.
Finally, and perhaps not of much use to you, but dipole speakers like my Quad electrostats suffer far less from room modes, and hence have an exceptionally clean sound. However, they are huge, and need space (at least 2-3 feet for the smaller 2815 model, and more for the bigger 2915) behind them (but not on the side). If you can find room for them, they are gloriously absent: you hear music rather than speakers. They also have dynamic limitations, but should be fine in a room like yours.