price points vs. room treatment


does it make sense for me to spend 4k on speakers?:

is it reasonable to say that the differences between a wonderful pair of $2000-$4000 bookshelf speakers (e.g. ref 3a de capo, opera callas, sonus faber concerto, etc) and a fairly good pair of $700-$1500 speakers (e.g. devore fidility gibbon 7.1, soliloquy 5.0, von schweikert vr-1s, etc) would be rendered irrelevent in an acoustically untreated room? and, is it reasonable to say that no matter how wonderful a pair of speakers might sound in the store there is a very likely possibility that these same speakers will not sound as good in your untreated living room?
mizrachi

Showing 2 responses by newbee

Mizrachi, It all depends on what you expect to achieve with your system. As a pratical matter, if you do not/cannot set your speakers up to their best advantage and compensate for you room's acoustics I wouldn't spend much money on my equipment or speakers - you will never hear it to its best advantage. If you value neutral tonality, you'll never hear it. If you value soundstaging you'll never hear it. If all you want is to hear music and are not interested in the stereo artifacts I would get some small floorstanders, place them against the wall where convenient and buy an equalizer to adjust the tonality to compensate for your preferences, sit back and enjoy.
Nrchy's comments are right on point. If you can bring your speakers out into the room away from the walls and treat the first reflection points as needed you can get excellent sonics from mid-priced components. Room treatment can be done at low cost using ordinary domestic stuff - furniture, rugs, plants, hangings, books/cases etc. If you want to use small speakers, use stands, to bring the speakers up to ear level, but you don't need to spend big bucks here either unless you have high quality components and an excellent room that will allow you to hear the difference.
Piezo, I didn't mean my post to sound like a put down, just a call for someone to really start thinking about what they were trying to do. Some things are possible (with help from experienced folks) and others are not. I know of folks who chase a lot of money after the ultimate sound stage but have to have the speakers against the wall - well you can get some frontal spread for sure but you will have zero depth, even with speakers "designed to be placed there". They then find the design being for nothing much more than to provide a better, more even, bass response- you get the idea. By the way, if you have trouble with wall reflections (not bass reinforcement) you can play with toe in a lot more than most do - try crossing the speakers axis in front of you - this will go a long way to eliminate those side wall reflections. You might also find better focus in the center as well. Works great in small rooms. Just a thought.....