Is it time to just quit?

“I just want to get my system up about 7% so that I can finally sit back and relax and enjoy the music.” 

😳

Now you can bop after you drop.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/05/catacombo-sound-system_n_3874456.html

That’s why I oft say trial and error can only get you so far. It’s worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack. The best you can possibly hope for at the end of the day is something you can live with but certainly not the best possible sound. The trial and error method is like trying to solve three simultaneous equations in four or five unknowns. Notice I’m not (rpt not) saying don’t use your ears. But do it in a methodical way.

The only reliable and most effective way to deal with speaker placement and or room acoustics treatment placement is using the speaker placement track on the XLO Test CD or similar test CD. HINT most speakers are placed too far apart, the thinking being that produces the best soundstage. The ideal speaker locations are of course speaker and room dependent, but generally speakers should be closer together, not farther apart. Start off with say, four or five feet apart and work slowly outward, using the TEST CD.

Re the XLO Test CD, the “speaker placement track” is the out of phase track. The instructions are spoken by Professor Keith Johnson, “The best sound will be when you hear the sound coming from all around you, with no particular direction. The best sound when you’re in phase will be when you have the most diffuse sound when the system is out of phase.”

Geez, whiz, guys, it’s not how much cash you blow, it’s how much you know. 

He not busy being born is busy dying.