In a lot of these threads people say without the room being treated


It's a waste of money to upgrade you're system. The problem is I don't think most people know how to treat their rooms. I really think it takes a professional to know how to treat a room. Sure you can play around with it if you like but it could also be a big waste of time and money. And I know hiring a person to acoustically treat a room can't be cheap. I wonder why more people don't discuss this subject and make recommendations on who does this kind of work. When I look at the big picture this makes the most sense.

taters
Before we moved in we did renovations on this house.  I used to often walk around warming up on my violin in the open area where the stereo is now.   It sounded fantastic.  I first set up my stereo in my teaching studio, a small, nearly square room.  It sounded horrible.  I moved it to the open, common area and it sounds great with no treatments, just a rug and furniture.  Luck of the draw, I suppose. 
If a good job is done matching speakers to room acoustics, need for treatments can be minimized.  Sometime not even needed.   You might even find less is more in some cases.  
I did a lot of upgrades in 2015, in a new "man cave".  When I got a new pair of speakers, got them "dialed in" to the room with just a few bass traps, the sound was just great!  But when I added a pair of excellent subs, that last octave of bass has been really difficult to incorporate into my system.  Over time I've added more bass traps and have most of the "boominess" out, but it's been a struggle!
Fwiw, I went to to an audio show last year and the best sound my friend and I both heard was in a room that had room treatments. (Von-schweikert)


I read a post here lately where the poster provided some great advice. Put pillows in the corners and hang blankets on the walls at the first reflection point as a test. Then go from there. No real cost in doing this and then see what happens. Experiment some to see if your room perhaps needs some help.

I tried pillows in the corners and it works nice; just one on the floor worked well and more pillows pilled up did not help further. When I'm done, I just put the pillows back on the sofa and so my cost is in the few moments to move the pillows to or from the corners. I may look at trying the blanket experiment next.