Chuck, treatment is the best money youll spend... (few more links for info below).... after having treated a couple rooms now, and having spent several hours listening in the spaces both pre and post-treatment, I firmly believe that there is nothing,
save the actual source that is playing, that makes as much of an impact as properly treating the enviroment. After getting the treatment installed and hearing the night and day difference, I could have launched myself out of the window for having invested as much money as I did in speakers/amps/ cables/etc without putting any towards getting the myriad issues with the room squared away..couldve honestly put an all in one 50 dollar panasonic boom box with
bass boost technology in there and had very similar results to the much more expensive array of stuff that I ended up with(in fact, the room played such a dominant role in the listening experience that shortly after treatment(and listening sessions that followed), I promptly returned the speakers as I did not like hearing them
at all in their naked /unveiled state..) ... before the panels, traps, carpeting, etc...My situation was akin to me putting a 427 in a rust eaten brown 1982 pinto with no headlights, 3 bad tires/ (and one 1 doughnut) and using tailored garbage bags for destroyed windows. my room now is small, and square(two wrenches in the gears!/// the one in my flat in Germany was fairly sizeable and rectangular), but with Glenns help and some of my own research coupled with trial and error( though I still dont know dick in the scheme of things), I have navigated those obstacles and am very happy with what I have accomplished(Now I have to tackle the room that I mix/master in)....anyway, sorry to ramble, but treatment is so, so important...( I realize too that sometimes the Frau can be an issue, Glenn and others(maybe, in part, due to struggles with their own better halves
) have designed treatments that integrate very well into the room visually(GIK has around 15 or so color schemes for his panels I believe). I really want to cry when I see a quarter of a million dollar system in a room with empty walls, nothing for absorption/reflection, etc.
http://www.acoustisoft.com/http://www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=26;hardset=0;start_point=0;DaysPrune=0