Yes, I've found that getting folks "over the hump" of paying for acoustic treatments to be one of the more difficult aspects of this hobby. It doesn't help that so many forum members trumpet very loudly that speakers make the most difference when it comes to the sound that you hear. I will agree that of all the gear, speakers make the most difference - more difference than, say, amplifiers. But my position has long been that the room itself makes the most difference, followed by the speakers
Obviously, when someone comes asking for advice and they only have $500 to spend, all of that budget is going to go towards speakers and a receiver. They'll have to live with whatever room acoustics they have. You can't make sound from literally nothing, so they have to spend the money they have on the equipment that actually produces sound!
But once you have a larger budget, addressing your room's acoustics should be a top priority. Not an afterthought. Sadly, acoustic panels just aren't "sexy"
Speakers and amps are like AV porn. But acoustic panels are just rectangles that you hang on the wall.
It makes things even worse when people still picture those hiddeous "egg crate" or "wedge" foam panels as the only sort of acoustic treatments they know of. And even if they know about panels from the likes of GiK Acoustics, Acoustimac, and ATS Acoustics, there's often still a WAF problem, as plain, 4 inch thick panels are often considered too ugly for the decorating committee
Lots of folks don't know about the "Art" printed panels that are available now. They're a terrific way to kill two birds with one stone! Most people like to hang some sort of decoration on the walls anyway. Posters, artwork, pictures - something along those lines. You can have any image you like printed on acoustic panels these days, so that's very often the best way to make everybody happy! But the printed panels are more expensive. Still, if you were going to purchase artwork, they can be less expensive than a lot of printed artwork.
But the simple truth is that I would rather use the Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers that go for around $100-$125 per tower and about $100-$125 for each pair of bookshelf speakers or for the Center speaker. I'd rather spend $400 on a 5 speaker set of those speakers and then spend around $2000 on acoustic treatments, than spend all $2400 just on speakers, but use them in a bad acoustic environment.
There are going to be a lot of people who call me utterly insane for having that opinion. And will entirely grant you that if your acoustic environment is decent, I would, of course, rather spend the full $2400 on speakers alone. But my point is that the acoustics make just as much if not more difference than the speakers. To the point that I would much rather have good speakers in a well treated environment, than great speakers in a poor environment.
I think that, because you don't plug them in, and because all they do is hang on your wall, folks don't inherently understand the value of acoustic treatments. They don't even enter into the list of things to buy for a lot of people. And if I bring them up, they get shoved to the very bottom of the "to do" list. They get relegated to the realm of "tweaks" and "optimization".
But they ought to be fundamental. It's your room, for goodness sake! It's the largest component of your audio system by a huge margin! It's a bit like how people forget that our skin is our largest organ
Anyways, my point is, once you can afford great speakers, great subwoofers and great AV Receivers, paying attention to your room's acoustics should be at the very top of your list, not the bottom. Folks go looking for better speakers, better amps, better cables, etc. etc. Meanwhile, I'm over here screaming, "the room, the room, the room!"
