Who told you that "thick wall-to-wall carpeting and padding" is a proper way to get good sound in all rooms under all circumstances?
EVERY room - including every concert hall - has its own characteristics and is never THE best! A carpeted one hardly ever can be! And even in a hall which is famous for its sound like Vienna, Amsterdam or SF you will have seats which are not so good. Don't overrate the single problem like room, speaker setting, toeing in etc. Everything is linked and working together or against eachother in every environment. And when you think you have done the job with orchestral music you listen to a big organ over your system and all the magic might be gone. Or you will have the "right" sound for a jazz club (Van Morrison - live in LA for a (fantastic!) example)and your Shostakovitch 11th breaks apart - over the SAME system. In the SAME room. For the SAME ears! So relax and don't trust those "THE BEST, THE ULTIMATE"-people. It's all relative - which exactly is part of the magic of music!
EVERY room - including every concert hall - has its own characteristics and is never THE best! A carpeted one hardly ever can be! And even in a hall which is famous for its sound like Vienna, Amsterdam or SF you will have seats which are not so good. Don't overrate the single problem like room, speaker setting, toeing in etc. Everything is linked and working together or against eachother in every environment. And when you think you have done the job with orchestral music you listen to a big organ over your system and all the magic might be gone. Or you will have the "right" sound for a jazz club (Van Morrison - live in LA for a (fantastic!) example)and your Shostakovitch 11th breaks apart - over the SAME system. In the SAME room. For the SAME ears! So relax and don't trust those "THE BEST, THE ULTIMATE"-people. It's all relative - which exactly is part of the magic of music!