High End System Building. How important is the matching, cabling and room? Thoughts ?

It sometimes almost reads as if there is a prevailing school of thought here that is that if you don’t have an acoustically treated room it just doesn’t matter what gear you put in it because it is all going to sound bad.

I don’t have an acoustically tuned room, and I have no doubt that my system would sound better if I did have one, but I also know that even in a bad room I can hear that different components produce different quality of sound.

@calvinj 

seems to me that even though you started this thread asking for others' input you are here to speak rather than listen...

i guess that's fine, to each their own as to why they come to this forum

The room has a significant effect on sound. This has been known a long long time, nothing new here. We all have different rooms, and different amounts of control as to what we can do with room acoustics. Regardless, we can always get good sound in any room, even at low cost. Some speakers are less sensitive to placement and give more/different options. Hopefully we are all enjoying the music on our various systems...

The room has a significant effect on sound. This has been known a long long time, nothing new here.

I am sure that is true, but so does the equipment.

 I went from a somewhat "cluttered" living room with unequal side walls (meaning no sidewall on one side depending upon which end I had my speakers at), andalso depending upon which end my speakers were at, the front wall/or rear wall had an open hallway leading into/out of it . . . so, as I was saying, I went from this room to a small spare bedroom with different stuff on one sidewall than the other (bookshelf on one sidewall and gunsafe and equipment shelves on other sidewall) and bookshelves completely covering what is now the backwall.  This turned into a very nearfield room.  I thought I would enjoy the intimacy I thought I would achieve in the small room, and I actually do enjoy the fact that there are no distractions back there, but I do find that I miss the open feeling and ability to crank up some volume in the living room.  But by moving some stuff out of my current small room and spending some time playing with speaker positioning and listening in the dark I can appreciate that with good source material that the soundstage that is created actually seems to extend beyond the boundaries of the room.

All of that was to say that through this I realize that the room does have a dramatic effect on the the sound that is reproduced. 

But:  in both flawed rooms I have played around with different pieces of equipment (digital front ends, preamps, amps, cabling and speakers) and in both flawed rooms I have heard differences in sound quality (both good and bad differences) as I played around with different gear.

I said that most upgrades will matter less and be less impactful than acoustics well done in a dedicated room ... ( this does not means that my low cost speakers will rival a Revel salon speakers to be CLEAR )  Saying the acoustic  truth dont exclude the other secondary truthfull fact that a well thought upgrade will make a difference even if you had no dedicated acoustic room and even no acoustics measures at all ..

People dont like the truth... 😁 Then they put "words" in your mouth ...

Keep your " school of tought" in the fiction section of your head ....

Acoustics rule the gear evolution and impression and design ...Not the reverse ...

It sometimes almost reads as if there is a prevailing school of thought here that is that if you don’t have an acoustically treated room it just doesn’t matter what gear you put in it because it is all going to sound bad.