Room acoustics plays a huge part in the sound. Cheap gear in a great room will beat great gear in a cheap room.
this is likely about the most worthwhile piece of info in this thread, imo. you go, nate!
i used to have the luxury of having my rig in a 28x36x8.5 room. the speakers were closest to the rear wall, ~6' away. it was amazing how good almost any gear could sound in that room. and, changes in gear were so easy to hear. upgrading equipment & getting better sound was yust the icing on the cake. the room is easily the most important part of any system, imo. most all of us are fighting the room, regardless of what gear we possess. my listening space isn't too bad, presently, at ~18x38. but, it also serves as my complete residence, so listening area isn't optimized. sure it sounds nice, (imo), but i always wonder - "how would these speakers sound in my old room"? some day, i hope to find out, or hope to be able to enjoy a similar room in another location. (three more years until my youngest is off to college; then i either buy the ex out and return to my old house, or we sell, split the proceeds, and i find another "permanent" residence, instead of the carriage house studio apartment where i have been living for the past three years. yay!
) the listening room has always been my #1 consideration whenever i was looking for a dwelling, since the time i moved out of my parent's residence. now, a decent garage space is also an equal priority.
regarding other "myths", it typically refers to "snake oil", and most often, folks argue about stuff like cabling. my take on it is that cabling does make a difference, but if you are spending more than, say, $200 on a pair of interconnects, or, say, $20/foot for speaker wire, your money could be better-spent elsewhere. some say i'm wrong, that more expensive, cabling is worth it; others say my dollar amounts are way too high. so it goes... i suggest one should simply be reasonable, and get the basics down before spending not insubstantial sums on stuff that's for the most part, "guilding the lily"...
and, while a component's appearance may affect some people's decisions regarding what they like, i feel fortunate to not be so afflicted. (i think, haha!) i know there have been instances where i
wanted to like a certain component more than another, cuz it was so drop-dead gorgeous, but i preferred the "ugly duckling", because it sounded better. two examples: sherwood s3000-series tubed tuners vs mcintosh mr65b tubed tuner. the mac is beautiful, the sherwoods sound quite a bit better. cary slp98 preamp vs melos ma333r preamp. the cary's looks are to die for, imo; the melos is a plain box. the cary was put up f/s within a week of me getting the melos.
ymmv,
doug s.
