It wouldn't hurt to experiment with room treatment before you spend a lot of money. The first reflection points can be temporarily treated with some heavier cotton blankets on the walls/ceiling/floor or a piece of soft (a cushy chair) or diffusing furniture (a bookcase) to see if this makes a difference to the clarity. With someone's help, first reflection points can be found in less than a half hour. You can do the same kind of thing in the corners by hanging some heavy blankets and leaving an air space behind them to act as a bass trap.
I tried this recently (my wife wasn't very happy by the way
) and was surprised at how much "tighter" my system sounded in the mid-bass region. I was also able to turn it up louder than just the few watts that I am used to without sounding muddied. Now I have to figure out how to make the room treatment more permanent without spending a fortune.
If treating the room this way gives an acceptable level of sound quality then maybe you can spend some money on materials and build the sound treatments yourself to save on labor. Now having said all of this, you should one day upgrade to the Epic 80-500 system
.
