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you don't need that acoustic foam they sell online. materials from home dept or home goods store like fiber glass,carpet or mineral wool works wonders and make the biggest difference in the world i personally think. eq is only necessary if your room is incapable of being treated i believe.i just never understood tho why would someone spend good money on speakers and disregard their room completely. i see it all the time.
You can see detailed plans, diagrams, mockups, and photos of how my studio was constructed and what materials I used here:
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/about_me/images/workspace/cloud_pagoda/cloud_pagoda-design_construction.htm
As you can see, my studio has ample acoustic treatment, but it still does not guarantee neutral sound reproduction. I consulted experts on the entire design from the first step to the last, including optimal listening position, monitor placement, furniture placement...etc, but I still had peaks and spikes, and that's why I bought the IK Multimedia ARC System, and it did a great job taking care of the issues the acoustic treatment couldn't. And even with ARC activated, I still wasn't getting the ideal response I wanted (I'm really picky that way. I need my frequency response to be flat within 1~2 dB across the audible spectrum, but in my case, down to only 30Hz since I don't use a sub in my monitoring system). So I created a custom EQ curve to be activated on top of the ARC system, and that got me the response I wanted.
I'd love for fellow head-fi members to come and visit me at my studio so you guys can hear what a system tweaked to be within 1~2 dB flat from 30Hz to 20KHz sounds like. Not only is the frequency response just smooth as butter, but the stereo imaging is astounding in dimensionality too due to the corrections ARC made. These additional tweaks working in conjunction with the acoustic treatment, and a pair of kickass reference monitors (Klein + Hummel O 300D's) creates the audio nirvana I've dreamed of for many years and finally achieved.
So my advice for those seeking that level of neutrality/accuracy in a speaker system, is to combine acoustic treatment with the ARC System, and then add a final EQ curve (if needed). You will be amazed at the difference. I would also say that if you can't do acoustic treatment (spouse approval, no space, no money, no idea how to DIY), then at the very least get the ARC System. For a few hundred dollars, it'll be the best money you ever spend on your audio system. It works wonders even for rooms that aren't acoustically treated, and can turn really bad sounding rooms into pretty decent ones, and good sounding rooms into excellent ones.
But if you can do acoustic treatment, definitely do it, because it'll take care of some of the more drastic problems that are outside of ARC's capabilities (or more precisely, ARC tries to not push things too much for fear of damaging your drivers or causing distortion). Also, ARC is not going to get rid of any severe echoes in your room--you need acoustic treatment for that. (If you want to see if you have an echoe problem, just clap your hand and listen. If you hear no flutter echo, then you're fine. A lot of you will hear flutter echo though, and the severity of it will tell you just how you're really hearing audio in your room--all those transients overlapping with echoes and smeared to hell....)
