Ideas on building a listening room!!

I spent a few hundred bucks on an acoustical engineer who has done several well known recording sutios in the Bay area. It was some of the best money I spent. On the construction side if you are going to get the most out of the designs you will have to supervise your contractor very carefully. Many od the construction details are not common to residential construction. Don't forget to get an electrician who has built instrumentation labs. Super AC power makes more difference than most imagine.

In general I agree with Wombat but in every construction project that has a utilitarian bent (good sound) there is a tension between aesthetics and engineering. If you spend all that money and get a bad sounding room why bother. Surface modifications cannot make a bad sounding room sound as good as a good sounding room with surface treatments.