But IMO if you don't have the perfect room, doesn't mean you shouldn't purchase good speakers. Yes maybe you will not get all you can out of the speakers. A good set of speakers is still a good set of speakers.
I appreciate this thought, but I suppose it "depends" really on how limiting the room is acoustically, and the flexibility of various factors in any such room. Perhaps I am too new to this stuff, and just have not owned enough speakers in enough rooms. For me, this hobby is just two years old. Nevertheless, I believe the room really is, by far and away, the most limiting factor in most setups.
What I also mean by the "room" is not just its own acoustical characteristics, but the available space to optimize speaker and listener positioning. Let alone the ability to treat it.
Far too often do I see speakers placed too close to the rear boundary. Too close to the side boundary. Wall mounted. Ceiling mounted. A monstrous AV rack between. A puny MTM center speaker shoved in a cabinet with reflections galore. Listener against the back wall. Treatments? Meh.
Now, stuff like this is often unavoidable, particularly in modest rooms in modest residences. But even when this stuff
could be avoided . . . it often isn't.
So, I gave my friend a nice gift of $250 MA BR2 speakers to my friend last night. I had them for the afternoon, and got to playing around. Even if I played with speaker positioning for only a modest amount of time, I got them to decently image a nice soundstage, with GREAT depth, and balance (not heavy on either left or right). I bluntly told my happy friend that they won't sound as good in his room. His speakers will be closer to the rear boundary, the side boundaries, in an untreated room. The recordings he listens to simply are not mastered as well as my extensive classical collection. Nor the treatments for front wall, and asymmetrical sidewall. His audio will not have the depth, width, or balance since he does not have the luxury of placement options. I do not own a "TV", and do not have a monstrous AV rack in between the speakers in my very acoustically challenged living room. I had close to 4 ft from the front wall to these speakers, and the listening chair is about 5-6 ft away from the rear wall. Given more time, I would have experimented with pulling the speakers even further away from each other for something closer to an equilateral triangle.
After all that blabbering, the point I want to make is that the willingness to maximize placement options is huge. I think this is, overall, the single biggest improvement that most people could make. Provided there is decent space, this greatest tweak of all doesn't cost a red cent either. Placement = setup = education? . . . = experience? Well, I can say it sure doesn't = money.
Even people who
know better . . . still don't look like they've tried. It usually looks like placement options were a total non-consideration. Or, maybe they don't know any better, and I give them too much credit. And so jostenmeat's rants endlessly continue . . .
To illustrate the point, my projector and screen cost about $2K combined for a nice 1080P PJ and a powered tab tensioned screen. This is chump change to most videophiles but how much better do their expensive screens and high end projectors actually look?
I think nice PJs do look a lot nicer. Our eyes are very sensitive. I read that we can detect a difference of 3 photons. Just with color accuracy or black detail alone could the difference be worth it. You can say the same thing about speakers, its simply a personal call on value.
The comment I'll add to yours is that we don't just hear with our ears. We hear with our brains with all the experiences, biases and preferences that entails. You're right of course. I put together a very expensive audio system about a dozen years ago and to this day I regret having done it. I won't get into all the details but I'll just that it was a real waste of money if the purpose was to simply enjoy recorded music. And that was my purpose.
Personally, I'm not sure that high end audio is a good place for music lovers. It is a great place for gear heads, of course. I think I'll have dinner, go upstairs and make some music and record it. I promise not to overcompress it.
You might be right. But, we listened to the first 2 mvmts of Beethoven's 9th, Couperin's 1st & 3rd Lecons de Tenebre, and some Krause/Union Station live. We thoroughly enjoyed it.