There seems a persistent notion that rooms need to be of a certain quality in order to take full advantage of what a speaker has to offer.
If your room isn’t good enough then investing in a wonderful pair of speakers is a waste of resources. Kind of like the idea that if you’re not a gourmet you cannot appreciate fine food.
Poppycock.
Of course it is true our rooms play a huge role in helping and hurting our HiFi system’s performance. There can be no disputing that. Where I draw the line is in supporting the belief a room has to live up to certain standards in order to take full advantage of every nuance available.
Speakers always outperform the rooms they play in.
A notable exception might be with dipoles. Indeed, not every room can take full advantage of all that a dipole has to offer. Dipoles need space and the front wall impacts how they sound.
That said, I would still argue that even in the unfriendliest of rooms the qualities of your speaker will be appreciated way before any room difficulties stymie their performance.
When it comes to rooms vs. speakers, ignore the room and focus on the speaker.
You can always help a bad room sound good but it’s not possible to put enough lipstick on a pig of a speaker.
