Great systems in butt-ugly rooms

I agree with those that see the room and the equipment as a total package!! I love my equipment but I also love the ambience of the room. Since my wife was in on the room design, everybody has something to cheer about. Late at night, with the lights dimmed and the equipment doing its' thing - I can close my eyes and enjoy the music or open my eyes and enjoy the room AND the music. In case you are wondering (I knew you were) the room is acoustically well done and 19' (on average) by 35'. Plenty of room for those big 20.1 Maggies and all the optimal furniture placement that is required.

You don't drink fine wine through a straw - neither should you listen to good music in a closet - If you can help it! Having said that (it sounds aloof!) I have been guilty of the equivalent of drinking fine wine through a straw.

Great topic. My wife and I are starting our major remodeling project. By the time we finished, my neighbors will not be able to recognize the old house (typical ranch style home here in the Silicon Valley). We will be adding a dedicated listening room as well, from the ground up. So the sky (and, of course, the wallet) is the limit. Both the architect and I came out of fairly progressive design schools, so the design of the house will be kind of out there, at least in comparison to the fairly conservative American standard.

I've started envisioning what the listening room might look like, and contemplated about enlisting Rives Audio to assist in the design. Afer looking at examples on their websites, I'm leaning towards figuring out the design myself while using Rives Audio to provide advice on acoustics. Not that there's anything wrong with their designs, but you could tell they were designed by engineers. I've started rading a few books on acoustics to learn the basics of acoustics so I have some concepts of what to avoid. I'm also doing some researches on designs of concert halls to get some design ideas as well. So, we'll see how this project turn out in late fall 2009.

FrankC

Well, I went with what I could afford....a garage turned into a dedicated room (and I even had to do my own labor, at that). I will say...my Apogees sound very good in this room, and thats all I needed.

Dave

Why are you guys picking on my room?, its all I can afford!

I see two sides of this, I like the "Fine wine through a straw" comment but I also see another side to this......
This is almost universally a solitary hobby so whats the point? Who are we trying to impress? isnt it about the music? While I appreciate and wish for a beautiful room for me it aint gonna happen, its just a matter of funds.
While I sorta cringe at some super near field pint sized rooms or other things I see I dont really care for we all do what we can, its not about who has what and how it looks...we should all appluad or atleast champion and support those who participate and try to grow or hobby. When we cant even applaud our own we become the snobs too many think we are.

Saw this one pic of G200's for sale, inches away from the back corners. Wanted to get on a plane and slap some sense into the guy. Hopefully, they went to a better home.