The misunderstanding about my point on the small number of steps in room acoustic control of the ears/speakers/room relation comes in your post because you conflate an idealized infinite asymptotic progression toward non existing perfection ( save in audiophile neurosis) with an OPTIMAL finite process in applied physical acoustics ...
And you cannot confuse the goal of theoretical acoustics with audiophile room acoustics application ... It is not because we dont understand hearing completely that we cannot design an optimal acceptable acoustic speakers/room for ourselves ...Save in neurosis obsession case ...
It is so true that actually it is very simple to have an OPTIMAL acoustic experience :
--First we pick the right speakers for our needs and room dimensions ...
--Second we optimize the speakers/room relation...
--Third we buy the BACCH filters of Dr. Choueiri ..
None of this three steps is an indefinite Sisyphean walk ...
And giving as an example the anecdote concerning people moving panels, rugs, and devices in a room without end in a search for perfection is as you know describing a mental disease at worst or at best ignorance of acoustic, then with no sane thinking relation with applied acoustics .. Save in a new Borges Novelette about someone obsessed in his small room with the infinitude of sound and the captivity of human in a small finite tonal jail and who deseperately trying to escape madness enter into madness by the act of fleeing and moving the reflecting and absorbing waves by displacing all the objects of his room without end ...Thinking about it , this pastiche of Borges could be interesting to write ...😊
«Sometimes the best way to escape madness is not fleeing madness but simply facing it without doing anything -- Anonymus mad asylum runaway patient 🤡
I guess I have come across audiophiles who are not obsessed with gear but with adjusting the acoustics - designing and then re-designing the room. Unlike you, they don’t see an "end point" as you describe it because they hear differences in how they arrange the diffusers, absorbers, etc.
They do not believe that there is a principled, objective, finite end to acoustic treatment. It is not consumerism. The measurements do not end the question for them. (They remind me that mathematicians argue, too.)
Acoustic treatment -- endless quest.
Gear -- endless question.
For these people, your consumerism argument about gear is very convincing. But it does not end their quest for perfect and ultimate acoustics.
