price points vs. room treatment

You get it! Nothing can sound great in a room that does not allow it to do what it is designed to do.

The thing is, it does nto require a huge cash outlay to address many of the basic room issues. $1000 (which is a lot of money) will go a long way to fixing a rooms annoying characteristics. It may not result in 'studio quality sound' but it's still a lot cheaper than a $2000-4000 pair of speakers.

As your system continues to grow, whatever you put into that room is going to continue to sound that much better. You might also be surprised how much better your current system sounds in a good room. Detail, soundstage, clarity, and frequency response can all be much improved. Some of these may be exagerated now, while others of them will be muted. Just fixing that will change the basic charateristics of the system.

If you are even a little handy there are a lot of things you can do yourself.

Another very important factor in your speaker/monitor equation is your choice of speaker stands. Stands are major extensions of your speaker. Putting a quality pair of monitors on poor stands is as bad as putting your speakers flush up against the wall, or actually putting them on bookshelves ( if you could find shelves that could support that weight). Many audiophools think they are saving money chosing the small speaker (monitor speaker) route, not taking into consideration the cost factor of excellent speaker stands. A great pair of monitors atop killer stands, with an acoustically minded room, can be shear audio nirvana. I have it. I could do better with some room treatments, however. I'm working on it. peace, warren

what does one do, then, if the room absolutely can not be treated and the speakers must be positioned as closely as possible to the wall behind it? must that mean one sacrifices sound and quality? is one forced to get a portless speaker and a sub? i have yet to hear a speaker that can perform exceptionally well in an untreated room and against the wall. any advice?