I would agree, and perhaps interchange 1 and 2. The room is SO much of every system equation. Bill, did you read Rod Elliots article Wayne linked?
A quote from the end of the article............
"Human hearing is very adept at picking the original sound from the reverberant field, provided the early reflections are not so early that they influence the direct sound. Given the highly reverberant listening rooms of some people, I have difficulty understanding how that can even tell what anything really sounds like - yet they will happily espouse their theories on what makes the sound better, ignoring the fact that their room will destroy the sound of any loudspeaker.Finally, the quality of much of the recorded material available is absolutely woeful. Equalised to within an inch of its life (so it will sound "good" on crappy systems), compressed, "aurally excited" (ptooey!), and generally mangled beyond all recognition. To be sure, quality recordings are available, but are they available from your favourite artist(s)? Usually not, so you either have to change your musical tastes to experience a decent recording, or put up with the rubbish that is often the only version of the artist/ song available. I have so many CDs and vinyl recordings that I find unlistenable on a decent system that it's not funny - for one CD, I have to switch off my subwoofer, or all my windows will fall"
BTW, dude, what have you been up to? Latest project??
MBB