04-23-08: Ckoffend
I think more than the appearance of the room, which for some in a dedicated room is not as important, is the number of systems in these tiny little rooms. I have seen some systems with upwards of $25,000 - $50,000 worth of equipment in rooms that don't appear to be more than 8-10 feet wide. Some of these systems are running large, very large speakers that appear to be about 1 foot from the side walls and about 4 feet apart.
Personally I think speakers with 1 foot clear distance from side walls are not a good thing even with some serious acoustical treatments. My room is 11' wide and although I have treatments at both side walls, my speakers performed better with a clear distance of 2' from side walls as opposed to 1.5'.
I do agree that we all have compromises of some degree on room shapes and sizes, and some do ignore the match between the system(speakers) and the room. Room treatments can only help to a certain level and for optimum results it is really important to choose the right size of equipment particularly the speakers for the available space.
