Tweaks, money pit or real value?

The Hallographs are superior to toilet paper roll Helmholtz diffusers and probably any typical Helmholtz diffuser.  I needed them in my prior home which did not have a custom built listening room.  If I purchase Von Schweikert speakers, I probably won't need them at all.  Same with speaker HFTs.   I have friends with $500K audio systems in their living rooms with windows behind them that sound very good as well.  Another friend has only footer tweeks in a $15K system that sounds fabulous (RM9 amp Mac C20 preamp, VPI Scout/Dynavector 20X2H, etc/Von Schweikert export V35 speakers).  

I just wanted to point out that 2/3rds of the tweeks I tried were either ineffective or not worth the money.   I've been using tweeks for over 40+ years.  

About my custom listening room-I can afford it and everyone who ventures in to hear my music loves it and wishes they had such a great listening room.

I hired an acoustician and followed his construction requirements as well as eliminating the need for bass traps by building them into the wall (including activated carbon filters between studs). The walls are 16" thick with no openings (doors are hinged and same design 17" thick). The ceiling and side walls have wall mounted acoustic absorption paneling, the floor is a 12" thick, steel reinforced 3000 psi slab. The hallographs are necessary not as a diffuser but as a focusing device-the Legacy Focus speakers tend to be narrow in soundstage and imaging. The Hallographs permit adjustable wider seating with enhanced ambiance. My Signature IIIs have a rear tweeter and have more ambient rich highs than the Focuses. The designer took into account the 6 -12" woofers in his order of carbon bass trap filters and that would include my proposed upgrade to the Von Schweikert VR9 SE Mkll speakers. I recognize very modest distinct benefits of 29 of the 34 SR HFTs I implement; however, the four HFT 2.0s on the bass portion of the speakers and the HFT-X on the center front wall are truly beneficial and very obvious in their affect in my tuned room. My choice of finished cherry plywood on all interior surfaces required more adjustment than room construction. I chose not to implement quadradic diffusion for reasons of loss of room area (the acoustician suggested 12" to 14" deep front and rear wall diffusion) and cost of real wood products (not the cheap/cheaper GIK products).

Enjoying one’s music in any system, even in a miniscule cost is the object of listening to music. My second audio system cost me under $5k in my good but not acoustically treated living room. It is better sounding than 95% of all music listeners I’m sure. Schiit electronics can be really cheap and sound very good. If the listener enjoys what they hear, that’s all that’s necessary. Audiophiles tend to gravitate toward improvements in their sound system and not concentrate on the music. Most music listeners today are satisfied with streaming music on their phones with earbuds.

In 50+ years of using good to great audio equipment in 5 audio rooms, I've removed three times more tweaks than those I keep.  For example, I had the SR Atmosphere XL4.  Sure it could improve recordings but at what cost?  I found that there were too many options and too much time/waste of time adjusting for each recording.  

Here is what I use: Two pairs of Hallographs to focus and gain ambiance with my typical box type dynamic speakers, 34 SR HFTs throughout the room and on speakers which adjust tonal balance and also disperse early reflections, boxed mounted and hanging Acoustic Fields foam absorption panels, SR blue outlet duplexes and three blue fuses on multiple amps, various types of footers, SR Mig Sx under one stereo amp, Stillpoints and one set of old Aurios under equipment with a Townshend seismic sink under a VPI TNT 6. 

Stands and cabling are considered tweeks by some.  The biggest tweek was building a custom high end audio listening room for $160,000.  My cheap Legacy Focus speakers sound fabulous (only lacking in ambiance of really expensive speakers/lesser speakers and monitors do have some superiorities but at the loss of many other factors).