SPeakers 90% of your sound

Speakers are certainly proportionatly one of the most significant changes--but I'm one that believes the room is 90 percent of the battle. How many people have moved from either a good environment to a mediocre one or vice versa. Same equipment, but different room--it can really make or break a system even more so than the speakers. (of course my opinion is an occupational hazard--for those that don't know what I mean visit: Rives Audio , in particular go to the listening room for some tips on what can make or break a room.

Twl: Where do you live (not an address--I'm not sending a henchman) just a zip code--or even a state. I'd like you to hear a really well designed room. I think it would change your mind. No words will--you have to hear it. It really is astounding what a room can do (soundwise that is--not performance wise--a bad one note performer will still be a poor performer, but acoustically he'll sound a lot better)

Just to be clear--I'm not talking about good rooms. I'm talking about great rooms. There is a huge difference. You can get lucky with dimensions, and absorption--but we are talking way beyond this. A room completely engineered to perform optimumly as a listening room. Once you've heard a room like this--there is no comparison. Now, it does not make a bad system sound great--in fact it exposes weaknesses of the system--but also strengths. It basically delivers the truth of what a system has to offer, but in this hobby you don't have to spend a lot on equiment to have a good well balanced system (in terms of components). Even for a $5,000 system, basic room treatment should be addressed. For a $20k plus system it's almost a crime not to address the room, and for any "state of the art" systems, not engineering the room is really wasting the ability of the system. So there really is a balance--that may have not been clear in initial post.