Why no Room Tuning Questions?

You can also look here:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/rives/bbs.html

http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?board=73.0

You are right that a bad room can make a great system sound pretty poor. A great room will allow a system sound up to its potential.

There are a lot of general living situations that support better acoustics that typcially are better accepted by other family members for cosmetic/aesthetic purposes. Rugs/carpeting, soft furniture, drapes as well as items that diffuse sound waves (ie. book shelves, pottet plants, etc. . .). In my experience panels are left to address some pretty specific issues which can't be addressed effectively with proper use and placement of regular household items.

Other than the fact that a lot of the high priced marketed products are more thoughoughly tested (supposedly), I don't see any reason why custom building (DIY) can't really be just as good - particularly with panels.

The same can be said about some of the higher priced stands that are being marketed that consist of simple extruded aluminum and screwed together with the special connectors that can be purchased from the extruded aluminum suppliers. The price that is being charged for some of these stands is really a joke since they are simple to make and can look just as good.

Ckoffend's comments are excellent, I think. You can do an a lot in a room with ordinary furnishings thoughtfully placed. IMHO you should resort to acoustic materiels only when you have a very specific goal and a resolution specific to that goal.

BTW, there are a lot of questions in this forum about 'room tuning', they are, however often embodied in other thread's about problems with frequency response, i.e. too bright, no bass, etc.