great question, thank you @heavygweit!

the room is definitely a big contributing factor, for sure. imo under-looked relative to its importance. many audiophiles spend six figures on their equipment meanwhile their room looks (and sounds) like a medieval dungeon.

that said, a big three-way floorstanding speaker won’t suddenly sound like a sonos bluetooth speaker just because the room sucks. so there are certain unavoidable physical realities: how big is the speaker cabinet and driver(s), how efficient is the design, how many watts are driving it, ported vs. sealed enclosure, horn-loaded vs. dome tweeter, etc.

the room can certainly change how you experience a particular speaker or component, but it doesn’t change its fundamental sonic characteristics. for example, if a speaker has a bright/harsh top end, an untreated room will accentuate this and make it sound even more harsh. but even the best treated room can’t make the tweeter sound natural if it’s inherently bright and aggressive.

More great audiophile nerd-sniping from the nichemaxxer himself, @matthewb.

As usual, I'm taking notes. 

(The algo often misses quality casts like this. Need human curators to help them get seen).

figuring out my next thing | marketing, content, growth | prev. Juicebox, Nouns, RAW DAO | casting about coffee, hi-fi, and other rabbit holes

Writer, senior editor, music nerd, GenX eldergoth, monastery-bootstrapper. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson https://tinyurl.com/Black-Stone-Wordsmith

It's both a blessing and a curse that my ears are so wrecked from decades of loud music and playing in rock bands that I couldn't possibly appreciate this kind of high-end audio gear. Still love reading about others experiences with it though.

That said, for *loud* music in particular, the qualities of the room matter more than anything. I've got loads of acoustic panels in my office and my practice spot!