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Re: Ok so let's move beyond the abstract and start spelling it out shall we?

Take another look at JA's pictures. In one he has a massive Halco standing roughly adjacent and in front a Wilson Sophia speaker, the side of the Halco, which is fully two third the height of the speaker if not more, appearing to act as an outside boundary for the speaker. The arrangement with the other speakers is different so it seems there was no attempt at symmetry (in fact the room is open on the other side relative to the placement of that side's speaker). Now mind you perhaps via trial and error he arrived at that setup as one which produced good sound. The point is that the photo, which makes no attempt to disguise the obvious clutter created by his audio components, testing gear, and computer setup, doesn't strike me as a overtly obvious prototype of a careful optimized setup.

Now bear in mind that is not a criticism of JA's setup, in fact I'd say the opposite as it seems to me that his setup very likely shares attributes with the majority of hobbists who *do not* have dedicated, single purpose, listening environments.

As for Art's setup it stands out as a rather obvious contrast to JA's. Given that these two fellows are members of the revirewing elite this would seem to argue against the notion of a particular correct "one way" or even direction to arriving at a satisfactory listening space. In terms of potential problems related to room nodes it seems Dudley's would be more susceptible as the space seem basically a closed rectangle with a not particularily high ceiling (as far as I can tell), yet there are no obvious room treatments such as bass traps (unless I'm missing them).

So overall I really don't see where you're coming from with the suggestion of obvious attention to detail, unless of course the fact that Art's room being a dedicated listening space fits the bill.

But frankly nothing about either of the room causes me any great concern. Oh Art's room is very likely to exhibit an annoying bright sound with crappy components but let's face it the bulk of the stuff he plays with hardly fits that description and moreover his well known prefererences further ameliorate any great concern.

I bother will all these observations only because I have for some considerable time become convinced that the "room" is just another of the tiresome "ojectivist" bugaboos. I don't know how many times I've read some BS about how a few simple room treatments would be *enormously* more effective than spending money on quality components, and typically from guy who believe most all electronics (forget cables!) sound the same anyway, etc.... ad nausea! How many of us have lived with single room for decades on end?... how many of us have had rooms that were a sonic disaster?

Ironically I just visited a friend who has moved to a space that grossly exagerates sibilances and hard constantants, it's obvious just by conducting a conversation. The critical point here however is precisely that the problems *are* obvious, he knows, and I know, something has to be done in that space. Fortunately given the current bare layout and hardwood floor a good Persian, an upholstered sofa, and maybe a tapestry on a wall should work wonders... heck even our work introducing better speaker cables and power cords has already made a world of difference, I can't wait to hear it with the "room treatments" in place!

As far as the conceptual leap from an obvious hell hole to reviewers using Jenga blocks under all their cables well what can I say?... maybe that sort of thing is no biggie to flighty Ayre types but I fear a great many audiophiles would be lost to the canyon in the attemmpt to vault across the divide.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

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