I have never thought of building a dedicated listening room to solve for the acoustic issues of a particular set of speakers. I think of building a dedicated listening room consistent with objective standards of acoustics theory (maybe Golden Ratio dimensions, non-parallel side walls, no mirrors or glass, etc.).
As far as I know there are no
objective standards of acoustical theory applied to stereo reproduction in small or medium size rooms. We have a few rules that seem reasonable due to common sense, but lack any proved evidence. In fact, when scientists study our "
rules" most of the times they show their irrelevance, as most are just scaled from acoustics of auditoriums and concert halls, ignoring that acoustic properties such as diffusion in large spaces can't be scaled and stereo needs a very different type of environment than life music.
I think of different speakers in that dedicated listening room as occasioning perhaps different absorption or diffusion treatment on the walls or different locations for acoustic panels to deal with first reflections
Curious that we never address with depth the most important part of the room behavior - bass. In this zone a proper room can do more than the best woofers or crossovers. But tuning the room on the bass needs hard calculations and simulations - we can't change wall thickness or materials easily and small building details can change the whole picture.
The nice thing of this lack of standards is that we can pick from the many rules those we enjoy, even change them according to our desires and still be happy and sometimes, successful.
First reflections are mainly a question of preference and speaker design. We should not forget that the high-end is based on audiophile individual or group preferences.
If MikeL switched to panel speakers I do not think any wholesale redesign or modification of his purpose built listening room would be seriously considered. Switching to panel speakers might occasion slightly different treatment on the front wall, or something like that, but that's it.
MikeL room is an example of the type of paradigm of an extreme hobbyist. Many years of experience and enjoyment to tune his great room, going through many processes of trying and learning with his own current speakers. IMHO it is an exceptional case and can't be debated as a typical experience. But considering the way he likes to listen I think that switching to panels would need big changes. But I am just guessing, I hope he chimes on the subject.