I am with your wife on the money spent. Depending on your musical preferences, a good move might be to sell the sub, cables and power conditioner and take her away for a long weekend.
Your speakers and room are going to have the biggest impact on sound quality. Unless they wish to feel the "oomph" from bass many listeners prefer not to experience driving the room modes at high levels. From your photos your room looks fairly lively and aggressive room equalization stands little chance of producing a reasonably natural sound over the bass range.
My advice, for what it is worth, would be to read about room acoustics and what recording studios have done to improve the sound of their rooms. Even though you may be unable to apply many of the techniques changes of +/- 20dB in response may help put modifications in perspective.
Your speakers and room are going to have the biggest impact on sound quality. Unless they wish to feel the "oomph" from bass many listeners prefer not to experience driving the room modes at high levels. From your photos your room looks fairly lively and aggressive room equalization stands little chance of producing a reasonably natural sound over the bass range.
My advice, for what it is worth, would be to read about room acoustics and what recording studios have done to improve the sound of their rooms. Even though you may be unable to apply many of the techniques changes of +/- 20dB in response may help put modifications in perspective.