Speakers that sound great in terrible rooms

@papafrog:

So is there universal agreement that given $x to spend, one should spend some of that on basic room treatment thereby getting better sound out of whatever speaker is chosen?

Nothing in audiophile land is universal, but the acousticians and my own experience says yes. You don’t have to think of this as a percentage, but room treatment makes rooms more speaker friendly, more bass and subwoofer friendly as well. Many 2-way speakers will sound much bigger with room treatment. So much so a 3-way or subwoofer may be less important.

Timbral balance, imaging, transparency and resolution all are enhanced by a good room. I can highly recommend GIK acoustic products regardless of the cost of the rest of the equipment.

But the point of this thread was, in my mind, a thought exercise, what if these are not options? What then?

I like Larson and Janszen also. I will add Spatial and Amphion to the mix - both control directivity pretty well.

I'll get crapped on here but...

The best speakers for bad rooms IMO are the Bose 901's.  Those things can be set up darn near anywhere and still sound pretty good.  At one time I had them on top of my Dunlavy SC-IV's and they still sounded nice.  Go figure.

Whenever my ugly audiophile tendencies rears its head, I'll put the 901's into my system for a while to just relax and enjoy the music.  

Mamoru

The best speakers for bad rooms IMO are the Bose 901's.  Those things can be set up darn near anywhere and still sound pretty good.

Agreed. Except for the "sound pretty good" part.

Refined speakers in a room full of mirrors will sound unlistenable.
So the only thing you can do is get a speaker that mulls over some musical details, like the acoustic suspension boxes that used to be fairly popular in the 60's and 70's.
You STILL must get a throw rug and some drapes, etc. to reduce reflections in general. Get the speakers off the floor and put them on some sturdy stands. Use putty or blu-tank to fuse the speakers to the stands. Of course this is an arrangement for a system that's used to play (mostly) popular music or rock. But they'll produce strong mid-bass and pleasant mids.
As for hight frequencies, you WANT a roll-off so your ears don't hurt.
Your entire chain should be unexceptional (but still have some refinements). I'm reminded of an acquaintance in college who played Deep Purple (LOUD) in his dorm with a larger-than-average pair of speakers,
The album sounded pretty good to my ears, so I had no complaints.
After all, MY stereo at the time was a reel to reel with built-in speakers. 
OK sound, but without money I imagined it was "magnificent".