Pleasurably better, not measurably better

@erik_squires 

If you ONLY treat first reflection points I can barely hear any benefit at all.  It is only when the room overall has enough treatment to quiet it down that the 1st reflection points matter.

That makes a lot of sense, and matches some of my experiences. Truth be told, even though I sell acoustic treatments I'm not necessarily as experienced with listening directly to the effects they have as many of my customers and other people are who have the means to employ extensive treatments in their rooms and experiment a lot. I have set up the sound room we have here with increasing amounts of treatment and noticed that at a certain point where all the walls were well treated and the floor was treated as well, that's when the room walls "disappearing" effect really started to work for me, making for a quite compelling listening experience. Unfortunately that setup had to be disassembled as we were getting overwhelmed with stock we couldn't move out because of a shortage of shipping containers. Right now the room is set up with a studio mixing/mastering AttackWall arrangement. That is interesting to listen to and compare to my recollection of the hifi setup. I like the AttackWall because it's clear, clean and precise but it doesn't create the ambient effect that the full room treatment did. I enjoy it but in a different way. 

I am always impressed with the level of precision music listeners will use to modify their spaces to get that perfect sound.

@femoore12 

Speaking only for myself, as usual, I'm not trying to get to perfect sound.  I'm trying to get to a place where music sounds good and the room vanishes.  My investment in speakers, room treatment and DSP is for those two items.  I'm not really concerned with perfect anymore. :)

Pleasurably better sound makes me pleasure myself.

@erik_squires 

"I think there are a lot of people who want to play at being scientists or engineers when they defend their technocratic positions on audio."

I believe that there are many who are unwilling to acknowledge that there may be gaps in their knowledge base, as well as having a low risk tolerance for being proven wrong.  

Then, there's the "SGR" thing.  I became familiar with this term back in my home automation days when a gathering of really smart guys would occupy the same room and quickly attempt to establish who is the "Smartest Guy in the Room."  Audio forums provide a somewhat less confrontational venue, but can be rather energetic at times.

It's all pretty harmless in this enviromment.  Some other situations, not so much.