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

All rooms have acoustics and each is different.

If you want to hear what your gear sounds like without room acoustics set your speakers up outside.

Years ago I set up my Ohm Walsh speakers cranking off a Tandberg tr2080 receiver outside on a porch of a rural Kentucky farmhouse for an outside party. Wowsa!!!! THe best sound I ever got out of system up to that time by a longshot even 40 yards away. Crazy Horse and others were jamming like live both loud and clear!.

This is why it is so difficult to get new entrants into this hobby; we keep making it more complicated (and expensive) for newbies to put together a system (including room) that is acceptable to 'us" and not subject to outright ridicule and scorn.

@hilde45 

I totally agree about a good sounding room. That's what good mixing rooms are. 

Studio recordings may or may not feature the acoustic space of the original recording. But the artist/producer/engineer work hard to create the space they want the music to be in. They want you to hear that too. A studio is not some sterile space. Most artists want to feel the emotion of the music in the studio and the closer your room is to a studio environment, the more you hear what was intended. 

Of course, every great studio sounds different so I'm not suggesting there's some standard. You create the room you like. But not intentionally creating a good sounding room limits your ability to hear the recording as it was intended. 

@mashif Understood and agree.

This is why it is so difficult to get new entrants into this hobby; we keep making it more complicated (and expensive) for newbies to put together a system (including room) that is acceptable to 'us" and not subject to outright ridicule and scorn.

I have no idea what this means. We are having a discussion. If some of it goes above a new entrants' head, well that's not our responsibility. This is not a textbook or a "how to" blog. If some new person needs an explanation, they can ask for it. They're not children.

I could've saved a lot of money through the years on equipment if I would've spent time/money on room treatment in the beginning.