The problem with absorption panels- it kills the fine details

Honestly, you don’t need any of this crap. If your room is avg, meaning normal furnishings ( carpet, upholstered furniture, some hard surfaces, pillows & throws, maybe a wall tapestry, etc....u get the point...).

@avanti1960 

Its not usually about reflections giving fake detail though they create a sense of space. It's normally about absorption causing suck out in the room response whether you can hear the direct or not. Detail is not only first arrival it's subtle details in sustain, etc.  Get suck out and you get masking from louder sounds at other frequencies.

where is a good place to begin to find out how to properly treat a specific room?

I have a fairly large area (media room over a 3 car garage) with wood floors.  Just picked up some new (to me) La Scalas and not getting the wow factor I was hoping for.  

We have plans to put a big heavy area rug in between the speakers and main listening position and wouldn't mind putting a couple panels up, but I'd like to avoid the look of panels everywhere if possible.

I think the consensus is that most rooms don’t need much acoustical treatment as long as there is a furnished room.

All the listening rooms we see with all the really really fancy gear only have all the really really fancy gear in them. It’s ridiculous it’s not normal.

I also think the consensus is diffusers make more sense than absorption panels because they scatter the waves and reduce lots of the reverberation affect. But they don’t diminish and absorb all the detail. So if only the world would create better looking diffuser panels then the crap they have now. Some look nice but many of the so-called absorption diffuser combo panels which are ridiculous look horrifying, with a few exceptions here and there.

I would buy diffuser panels in a minute if they looked nicer, but frankly they are a pain in the ass to buy because the marketing and the availability and the design and the size is so difficult to deal with with on all those damn websites that do a terrible job marketing this product. And the ease at which you can mount them on the wall is absolutely horrifying, it could be a lot easier.

The consensus SHOULD BE, if we are honest with ourselves, is that most audiophiles slap some stuff on the walls without knowing what they are doing, why they are doing it and without a desired outcome in advance.

In other words, we apply acoustical treatment like we test cables, we A-B a bit, experiment a bit and then proclaim it "done". If we want a professional outcome, hire a professional. Most professionals though don't get called in until its a clusterph&*% of homemade, DIY or ordered off the internet random "solutions". Talk to a few pros and you will find they are most often in the business of trying to fix a bad haircut.

Random outcomes and hope are rarely the best strategy.