Michael Fremer's system

As for "not getting great sound" in a room like that...

Some of the best sound I've ever heard were large speakers in small rooms.  (That includes mine, but I've heard higher end speakers in other small rooms).   Often a small room means the speakers end up closer to nearfield, taking out some of the room.   That's also how I listen to my floor standing speakers and they usually sound much better than demos even in larger, dedicated high end audio store rooms. 

Of course not every large speaker will work in every small room.  But, so long as we aren't talking about someone placing speakers haphazardly in a reflective tile bathroom or something, someone who knows what he is doing can render terrific results in atypical rooms.

I do not follow Fremer all the way to his conclusions about wires and tweaks.

But he is for me one of the most trustworthy pair of ears when it comes to describing the sound of a speaker.   Over and over through the years I've found his descriptions of the sound of a speaker I have heard to be extremely accurate. 

And given that he does all his reviews in his room, that would seem to say something to me about his ability to get a good indication of the qualities of a speaker in that room.