Some of us live in the real world, with unappreciated nagging wives etc...I know of no women who is into any of this audiophile jazz...the real world means no dedicated listening room, probably the majority here. If you do have one , then consider yourself blessed. In a real home setting, your gear is typically stuffed in your living room where ever you can fit it. Room treatments are sorely lacking as that needs wife approval status, ain’t happening. Room Is neither too reflective or absorbing, not scientifically determined. It is based on what is in it, ie hard and soft furnishings, soft pillows, wall to wall carpet, tapestry, curtains, drywall and drywall/studded cement walls, large sectional couch, record shelves, cd shelves, low ceiling, listening space maybe 16x14, open on right side to rest of room, doorway to right to another adjacent room, etc etc....not perfect, but sounds ok to me. I sit only 7 feet away from speakers, of which are point source tannoy toed in at ears. There Is space behind the listening spot, the speakers are a tad more Than 1 foot from front wall (all i can do) and spaced equidistant to my listening spot. Speakers are situated on the longer wall. That’s my reality. Most speaker manufacturers do not anticipate you placing their speakers in an anechohic chamber. A lot of people using room treatments have no clue as to where to even place them, rendering them useless or even detrimental. Unless of course you hire some acoustical experts.i think I'll live in my real world for now.
If you have a nice system why do you really need room treatments?
Yeah you may need an absorption panel if your room is completely open, ie. No rug or furniture, ie just lonely single chair. But if your system can't cut it in any room then it's a system problem and you should be able to discern a good system regardless of the room. Unless you put it on the roof of your apartment building but the Beatles seemed to have survived that effort
I think people go nuts with all this absorption acoustical room treatment stuff and it looks kind of awful. Once in a while you see a really cool looking diffuser panel and I would definitely want one. But to have a system that works really well without any of the acoustical panel distractions is a wonderful thing.