"The room can totally wreck, or make, a system"

Room EQ Wizard is indeed your friend worth getting to know.

My background is in recording studios and I couldn't imagine trying to put a system together without first doing basic room treatment. Between standing waves and reverb time, I would find it impossible to evaluate gear. It's a somewhat trial and error process but there are some basic things any room should have. 

Some rooms may have a fortuitous layout with slanted ceilings or non parallel walls that provide a good foundation. But they can hugely benefit from some well placed absorbing panels to reduce reverb time. Without that there will always be smearing and lack of focus. 

Some people worry about a room being too "dead" but why would you want to hear anything that isn't from the source? The ambience you want to hear is embedded in the recording. The sound of your room only detracts from that. Consider that headphones eliminate the room so there's little reason to want to hear the room. 

mashie ...Consider that headphones eliminate the room so there’s little reason to want to hear the room.

There you go, plug in to your nice headphone amp, one and done. All music.  

mashif

Some people worry about a room being too "dead" but why would you want to hear anything that isn't from the source?

All rooms have a "sound." The only way to avoid that is to listen in an anechoic chamber. If you've ever been in an anechoic space, you know that it is extremely uncomfortable and certainly not ideal for a listening or living space. So yes, a room can be too "dead."

There was another post about Rooms today:

There is no room that is acoustically correct without treatments. Rugs and drapes are not very good and could actually make your room to dead. You need a mix of absorption and diffusion. All corners will accumulate bass, this can be wall corners, soffit corners. Then there are 1st reflection points: in front of speakers on the floor, ceiling, side and the 1st reflection point for the opposite speaker.

The room is 1 of the most important pieces of an audio system