Is room treatment a science?

Many sophisticated descriptions of acoustician principles.
My main system is in my family room and my wife would never agree to have panels and other acoustic treatments on the walls!
I have experienced room treatment as extreme as a half million plus spent to create a dedicated room with acoustic walls floor and ceiling! For me, the most WAF friendly and very effective treatments are ASC products. Their bass traps are elegant grey cylinders that can be placed behind to the corners of the speakers. I don’t have them now but have used them in the past to great effect in focusing the sound and tightening the bass.

a lot of good advice above. I built  28 x 17 room from scratch with acoustics in mind. I wanted only minimal wall treatments. +1 on ASC tunable cylinder traps. very versatile and effective. trial and error will definitely get the "low hanging fruit" and produce a noticeable difference. but it is a science to clean up a room while keeping it lively.  I had my room tested and identified resonant frequencies and where they existed.  Placed absorption & diffusion treatment as needed for the specific problem frequencies. I had everything tested and made through Artnovion. Color & design coordinated with room so it looks beautiful in addition to sounding great (to me). I think a good room treatment is like upgrading every component you have at once. Good luck 

There are many good responses explaining the science and approach to this problem.  So I don’t have anything unique to add.  I do highly recommend you look at the Acoustic Sciences Corporation (ASC) products.  I have used them for the last 15 years.  They have traveled with me to three different houses, five different listening rooms.  The ASC Tube Trap is simple and elegant.  Each Tube Trap is designed with an absorptive side and a diffusion side.  This is important in that the solution for tuning a room is not always absorbing unwanted reflections or frequencies.  By using a combination of absorption for removing unwanted bass reflections and diffusion for addressing mid and treble frequencies you can create great focus in the room, while still creating a sense of size and liveliness.  Good luck on your journey.  Cheers!  

Bout time I spoke up.
Yes, it is science. No, there is no perfect room. Yes there is a method to the madness. Finally, there is always a trial and error period based on what the individual likes to hear. 
Everything is based on reflected sound. Early reflections are always bad. They interfere with localization and detail. They "smear" everything and can alter frequency response. Late reflections can be used to advantage. You can generate "echos" that will give you the sense of a larger space.
Sound bounces of boundaries just light light off a mirror. You are only interested in what sounds get to your ears at the listening position. So, you work in reverse. Sit in you listening position and have a friend hold a large mirror against the walls around the speakers. Have him move the mirror at your head level across the wall slowly. When you see the reflection of the speaker in the mirror, mark the wall. That is one early reflection point. Continue around the three walls adjacent to the speakers until you find them all. With point source speakers you have to worry about the floor and ceiling. Those who have line source speakers only have to worry about the walls. Those of you lucky enough to have Line source dipoles only have to worry about the wall behind the speakers. You can also find secondary and tertiary reflection points this way. I use acoustic foam tiles at the early reflection points because it is cheap and easy to use. Once you get below about 150 Hz things get way more difficult. Bass has a lot on energy. Any of you heard  sonic boom? Impressive to say the least. In a room bass just keeps bouncing around and everything has a resonant frequency, the walls, the cabinets and that picture you have hanging on the wall. It took me 6 months to finally get my picture screen quiet. Still if I turn my satellites off and just run the subs the whole house sings. Fortunately the satellites mask the symphony. There are ways to deal with the bass problem to a point but all of them are imperfect. Most important is using multiple subwoofers then comes digital room control. IMHO everything else is wishful thinking. 
My best advice is buy some of these  https://www.parts-express.com/sonic-barrier-fwp121-sawtooth-foam-sound-damping-for-enclosures-and-studios-12-x-12-x-1---260-546  , find your early reflection points and have at it. Never buy fewer than two sub woofers. One sub just is not worth it. You are better off without.

Best of luck,
Mike

There is a gentleman who has a YouTube channel that I watch regularly, the channel name is Acoustic Fields, and Dennis Foley is the the person who does these videos, and has a company of the same name who does very high end acoustical installation, and more. Well worth your time, and yes indeed, it is a science.

Just today he went over a very basis goal you must meet before anything else can be considered; equal sound level/pressurization within your room. This was very interesting, breaking up the room in several sections, in which all locations must be close to equal in volume, or pressurization. One thing he stressed is that the area behind the speakers must have an equal DB level as your sweet spot, or a far corner of the room. I said to myself, ‘oh man, I bet mine is a mess’. Took out the DB meter on my phone, and walked all around my room. I was surprised how equal my room was, but nothing near what he accomplishes on his projects, I’m sure.

Anyway, a very interesting guy, who is nice enough to provide some basics from a pro in high end acoustical treatment installs. Well worth your time.