How important is it for you to attain a holographic image?

By the way, to clarify, I’m not suggesting that room treatment is not very important. But in order to actually get the best results, care must be taken to optimize whatever room treatments one decides to employ. Whether it’s acoustic panels, or tiny bowls or Helmholtz resonators or those Shakti Hallographs, or Mpingo discs, or whatever, it’s best to apply these things slowly over time, with the help of test CDs like the XLO Test CD to make sure speaker placement is changed to account for better room acoustics as one goes forward.

It’s also very helpful to use a test tone and SPL meter to establish where in the room standing waves, reflection points, echos, etc. exist. Guessing by trial and error, especially when the number of devices in room grows high, can have rather bad results sound wise. You will be lulled into a false sense of security. And your fate will be sealed. 😝

I’d rather devote all that time and effort listening for the musical message rather than the sonic message.

It's impossible for the "musician's message" to be revealed until all is made neutral and clarified; that encompasses all the improvements required to clearly reveal the musicians message; however, to do this requires "work".

rvpiano, I interpret your post as stating; "I would rather listen to what I got than work to make it better."

Geoffkait, if you read my posts, you will discover that it was "Serendipity" that ultimately got me where am; although I did have other forms of insulation bound in speaker cloth.

Since it was partially "luck" that got me where I am, I'm not an authority on how to get here (holography), but I can tell you how sweet it is once you have arrived.

Your post sounds very helpful to someone who is trying to achieve the benefits of holography.

Since "holography" is the last stage of development in the audio progression, there is a possibility that it's not relevant in your stage of progression.