erik -squires is absolutely right ...
Nothing will replace room acoustic power of transformation for the worst or the better ...
No wave guide or near listening field will cancel room acoustics power potential , i do the two i am in near listening field and i redesign my active speakers tweeter wave guide and porthole by the way ...😊
Knowing the speed of sound and room dimensions it is preposterous to claim that reflected waves will be discounted because of near field listening in a small room ...
I hear modifications in my small room even through nearfield listening ...And my directed wave guide tweeter are at 3 feet or few inches less from my ear ...
Acoustic passive treatment and active controls of the room are the most important factor ...
After that electrical noise floor of all components and of the room and of the house together ...
Vibrations controls of the speakers and resonance control in third...
Cables come way after that ...( save if your cable are horrible and even with horrible cable , it is certainly and probably fouth factors so much impactful are the others )
i know for a fact that most people had never go through extensive room acoustic modifications than they think acoustics controls is a cherry on their gear choice cake ...
Completely false...
The gear choices matter less than the acoustics.... The only exception would be comparing my low cost active speakers, so good they are modified with a Revel or top Tannoy speakers...Here the extreme choice between low cost and higher cost speakers matter AS MUCH as the room controls... But only in this case , for most people average speakers mid-fi choices , even upgrading the speakers will be in many case way more astounding than redesigning the room acoustic...But most people cannot even had a dedicated room , this is why they are forgetful of the acoustic huge impact , they never experie4nced it anyway ...
Room acoustic for me is way more than buying few panels by the way ...
Anyway i know that most dont know and will never know...A dedicated room cost too much, even me now i am in a smaller one i could no more design at the le4vel of my past one ...Near listening field ask for room acoustic but not at the level far listening field asked for to be optimal for sure ...
Because i could not imagine it BEFORE doing my many years room experiments with resonators and others devices i understand why most people can think that other factors matter more ...But truth must be told...
Acoustics rule everything in audio...Not the reverse so important it could be ...And acoustics concepts exceed room acoustic design ... I modified my porthole design with acoustics concepts ...
Nothing is as important in getting to done as the room and it’s treatment. You can go round and round with speakers, and cables but when you get the room sorted, you are on the express train to done.
As for cables, after a lot of playing and listening I’ve settled on pure silver interconnects and Mogami speaker cables. Everything else I’ve heard has been subtractive.