In many rooms there is absolutely no need for any "room treatment" as the room may have furniture, shelves, carpets or rugs, and OMG (!) a "room" sound! To say any system other than yours isn't up to par because of possible "early reflections" or whatever your micro peeve might be is ridiculous unless you've been there and/or have somehow copped their taste...baloney. I don't mind some life provided by a non anechoic listening space, and speaker directivity or lack of such (dipole?) are all over the map...if your system works for you in providing what you feel is great sound...well...great. Strangers don't dictate how my personally dialed in system sings, and they never will.
Speaker positioning: why do audiophiles neglect this so much?
Went to a recent seminar featuring Jim Smith, well known author of the book "Get Better Sound" and hi fi set up guru.
The basic gist of the discussion was that the most important elements of a high end stereo installation are listening position and speaker positioning, in that order. The actual hardware (speakers, amplifiers, source, cables etc) are of less importance relatively speaking.
Yet it is clear from this web site and it's contents, that set up is discussed much less than the actual hardware.
When I look at the Virtual Systems page on site, I'm estimating that, maybe, 10% of the systems posted are close to well set up. Thus, hardly any of the featured hardware is performing close to it's maximum potential.
Shame, and why is it so? Not sexy enough to talk about system set up in depth? Lack of knowledge? Or is it simply too hard to do and too complex a subject?
Just my 2 cents ...