the Listening Room

Gajgmusic...my room is 14x24x8, asymmetric, with a double-door opening on the right rear, and another behind me. AND I also have a 7' Steinway B near the front wall.
The only room geometry that worked was to set up a nearfield triangle (7.5') in FRONT of the piano (which is slightly angled back), with my seat at the very rear of the room, with that opening behind me. The room is of course well-carpeted, and I use a sofa (L) and stuffed chair (R) with a pillow popped on top of each for an occasionally too-splashy sidewall mix). The chore was to find a full-range speaker with orchestral/rock peak ability (3-way) that cohered in the nearfield without taking my head off sitting on-axis...and had a generous center-fill. B&W Nautilus were quickly proved terrible; Thiel 2.3, Ariel 7b weren't bad; Revel Performa F30 worked well, but had really poor WAF.
I eventually stumbled upon Verity Parsifal Encores and heard my jaw drop upon first listening!
I continue to experience a GREAT, wider than speakers, ULTRA-deep soundstage that provides remarkable satisfaction.
Even a great acoustician engineer/friend (Tom Horrall, who's since gone over to the multi-channel crowd) was surprised at the success of my setup (though I still can't forgive him for the bellylaughs everytime he asks me what I spent for cables...). So maybe you too can try an imaginative geometry that works in your room WITH your piano.
Don't be afraid to pull your speakers FORWARD of the piano. That "back" half of the room can provide a GREAT stage.
It's not uncommon for me to "see" singers, tenors, drummers, and of course pianists sitting reight beside the piano. It's just phenomenal for acoustic jazz.
Good Luck.

Dear Reves:

I appreciate your comments greatly. It makes complete sense that you will have to know what is there, what is changable and what is not and then decide if there are options. I will have to start giving this more consideration.

Dear Subaruguru:

Thanks for the comments too. Your room sounds not dissimilar to mine. It gives me hope to consider more options. I too thought strongly of the verity, which are wonderful speakers with high waf, but ultimately went with piega p8ltd which also have very high waf and are room kind.

I'm in the same camp as G_m_c. I listen to music on a 2nd floor (which is the main level) looking out into the trees. Visuals in life are as important to me as listening. Both bring me tremendous joy & peace. The two are not mutually exclusive. There are certain speakers (very good ones) that I would never buy because I couldn't look at them. I listen in a large, open, space in excess of 10,000 cubic feet. The negative is that is that spaces such as this are a bit too reverberant, the positive is that they have a spacious feel & sound. Specifically to the original question: I would want a consultant to tell me where treatments would be effective and let me (a designer / builder) balance the design/sound equation based on the consultant's skills (data, fundamental engineering) in conjunction with visual design.

Architects & engineers, painters & musicians have worked together for centuries. Seems like sometimes we audiophiles may polarize what please our eyes & ears perhaps too much.

It not always the wife who care how it looks :) Thanks for starting this thread.