Tweaks, money pit or real value?

I hired an acoustician and followed his construction requirements as well as eliminating the need for bass traps by building them into the wall (including activated carbon filters between studs). The walls are 16" thick with no openings (doors are hinged and same design 17" thick). The ceiling and side walls have wall mounted acoustic absorption paneling, the floor is a 12" thick, steel reinforced 3000 psi slab. The hallographs are necessary not as a diffuser but as a focusing device-the Legacy Focus speakers tend to be narrow in soundstage and imaging. The Hallographs permit adjustable wider seating with enhanced ambiance. My Signature IIIs have a rear tweeter and have more ambient rich highs than the Focuses. The designer took into account the 6 -12" woofers in his order of carbon bass trap filters and that would include my proposed upgrade to the Von Schweikert VR9 SE Mkll speakers. I recognize very modest distinct benefits of 29 of the 34 SR HFTs I implement; however, the four HFT 2.0s on the bass portion of the speakers and the HFT-X on the center front wall are truly beneficial and very obvious in their affect in my tuned room. My choice of finished cherry plywood on all interior surfaces required more adjustment than room construction. I chose not to implement quadradic diffusion for reasons of loss of room area (the acoustician suggested 12" to 14" deep front and rear wall diffusion) and cost of real wood products (not the cheap/cheaper GIK products).

Enjoying one’s music in any system, even in a miniscule cost is the object of listening to music. My second audio system cost me under $5k in my good but not acoustically treated living room. It is better sounding than 95% of all music listeners I’m sure. Schiit electronics can be really cheap and sound very good. If the listener enjoys what they hear, that’s all that’s necessary. Audiophiles tend to gravitate toward improvements in their sound system and not concentrate on the music. Most music listeners today are satisfied with streaming music on their phones with earbuds.

ghdprentice/steakster-

If I count the Schwinn Sting Ray days+40 years of performance cycling/racing, I have over well over  half a century of saddle time.

Audio as a hobby is like finding the perfect  saddle height/riding position- IMPOSSIBLE, but you strive to achieve it until you drop dead trying.

My silly bike tweak-EVERY possible bearing is ceramic. Practically zero rolling resistance, but you STILL have the pedal the damn bike! 

Thanks very much fleschler your posts are always interesting i must say...

just a precision about that :

The hallographs are necessary not as a diffuser but as a focusing device-the Legacy Focus speakers tend to be narrow in soundstage and imaging. The Hallographs permit adjustable wider seating with enhanced ambiance.

What you described is precisely the effect of my grid of Helmoltz diffusers which are also of different length and diameter and are analog in a way to quadratic diffuser but being open/semi-open tubes they can work anywhere in the room and not only on walls...This is very important ......They diffuse at some spot in a better way than at some other spot in the room, it is reason why a diffuser ,must be well located to make possible a better "focus" on the sound imaging and also more importantly an INCLUSION of the listener in the soundscape...This is called LEV/ASW factor ratio in psycho-acoustic...I have diffusers near my listening position and inside the speakers themselves and over them 😁😊...

i will never compared my modest system to your costly one, but like you said even a modest system can do miracles... The only difference, if there is one between us, is that for me it is acoustic and psycho acoustic control the main factors....Not the gear choice by itself alone....And acoustic MAY cost peanuts...I dont need bass trap in my 13 feet non ideal square room with one speakers at few inches of a corner... Is it a worst location than that ? All my acoutical devices are used also  to compensate or nullifiy the bad location of my speakers among others role ...I succeed and discover that some bad locations of the speakers can be taken care of and are only location difficult to play with acoustically and not absolutely bad ...if it is possible for me anybody can do it... 

I am not an acoustician at all , i only take a set of non stop listening experiments for a very long time in months each day in my room creating homemade necessary devices... 😁😊

Acoustic is the way for me...

My deepest respect to you...

Thanks for all your answers...

The hobby in general is a money pit, but tweaks from big names generally are the worst. My idea is look on the used market and see which item loses it most value when going to try and sell it later. Those are what I consider the biggest money pits. The bottom line is, if you love what it does then who cares if it is a money pit or even viewed as snake oil, embrace it and enjoy it!

Resist! Get a $$back guarantee! Believing is hearing! Cables do matter, especially USB ones. What seems obvious in a hotel room may no do the same thn in your house. By great recordings of "your kind" of music. Enjoy