@audioquest4life , thanks for your kind words. Music is music indeed, and I enjoy music through my car stereo enough to know that sometimes you just need to turn off the audiophilia nervosa. We all live in a real world and deal with compromises. But a post like this invites dreaming, so dream I did. It is akin to someone asking "What is the ideal 2 channel system?"
I agree that near field listening can be wonderful. In fact, I'd love to be able to build a system around that paradigm. But if I were designing a new room, I would not want to get locked into a particular paradigm. I'd want a room that would likely be as friendly to a near field paradigm using a monitor/dba approach as a more traditional full range system with the listening position further back. I'd want a room that could work with panels, line arrays, point source, and horns.
For the last 6 years, I've been "enjoying" my first dedicated listening room in which I'm using my first set of full range speakers. It has been a challenge making it work, and I'm not completely there yet. I've got the main issues addressed, so I'm getting close. What remains is fine tuning, and it is not easy. It takes a lot of critical listening to a lot of different recordings and an equal measure of critical thinking about what I am hearing.
Most of the issues I've had to deal with were baked into the cake with room dimensions and construction choices that I had no control over since we bought an existing house. Next time will be different. I will either be going new construction or buying with the intent of building a music room as an add on.
