Should Room Acoustics be an Audiogon ‘topic’?

@moto_man 

I substituted another audio component for “room acoustics”.  Changes are in italics.

“The problem with speakers is that they are specific to your budget, room size, and personal taste.  I’m not sure that a separate Forum section would actually be of assistance to us, compared to say, having a dealer talk to you and make recommendations. Can you say that X’s speaker is better than Y’s speaker?  Not sure.  But what I can definitely say is that I have a cube shaped dedicated music room which is probably the worst for music.  Although the dealer went wild and literally sent me a proposal that looked like it was great for near-field listening, I opted for a more modest approach with headphones.”

You could replace speakers with amplifier, streamer, etc. Doesn’t read any differently. I guess the real question is why have topics at all? Everything is ultimately "Misc Audio".

And your last two sentences reinforce the import of the topic.

“I opted for a more modest approach with bass traps in three corners, amplitude panels behind my chair and panels on the ceiling and I have to say that the sound quality of my system was improved by at least 40%!  A phenomenal change for about $3500!”

@tcutter, I have to laugh because you are 100% correct.  What I said could apply to virtually every aspect of this very subjective "hobby." I suppose that there is value in comparing components where the only variable is the component itself, so in the same system, swapping out X preamp for Y preamp gives some understanding of the differences that someone would hear, while I am not sure that the same is true for one bass trap vs another.

@tcutter I'm as surprised as you at some of the listening rooms i see with high end equipment and ignorance of the room itself--but in most instances it appears to me that WAF is the #1 consideration and will compromise everything, especially speaker location--i was amused at a fellow G'oner's comment above about putting wheels on your speakers so you could move them into position for listening and back to the corners for the spouse.  I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated listening room although it's small and not ideally dimensioned (but better than square) so i've set it up for nearfield listening and treated it as necessary with help from the late Jim Smith (RIP) who was the guru that first made me realize how important the room is.  Yes, novices need to understand the importance of the room but what happens next is usually "how can i make the best of the room i'm stuck with" and a partner whose priority is usually aesthetics over acoustics...

@moto_man 

Bass traps are not as diverse as electronics but there are different builds for different frequencies, some are more attractive than others, placement matters, etc.

You have a very nice system. Not knowing what bass traps you use, I imagine they do not do much below 100 Hz unless they are range-limited. While the one sub provides all the bass you may need or want, another sub or two would likely make a noticeable improvement in terms of reducing comb-filters and standing waves below your traps’ effective range.  If you can get one on loan, you might want to try it out. 

And then there are the active bass traps...

Emphatic yes! Dollar for dollar, it’s the best money I’ve spent on audio. I would, especially like to know more about using tools like REW to inform empirical decisions. My room was analyzed professionally, and I used REW to record the rooms properties at different stages of the installation. I learned a lot, but still not enough to do an installation from scratch.