I am sharing my story, if for nothing else - for laughs
. I was prone to seeking perfection and in relation to that spending (way) too much time tweaking my 9.4.4 system and constantly thinking of potential upgrades. It was probably beyond the word "hobby" and looking back probably not "healthy".
I overcomplicated my HT (first one in the signature), which proved to be a good and bad thing in the long run. Bad thing is that I spent too much time integrating and eventually gave up and called a professional calibrator to finish the job as I just got sick of spending my free time on (literally) endless tweaking. When he was done we reviewed so many graphs that I can't even remember the number and listened to some of alternatives to finally decide which one is the winner. Good thing is that I am now beyond any desire to upgrade any gear so this cured both my upgrade and tweak habits of the past.
First complication was to run LFE+Mains as I have 8 towers plus big center that reach down to 30-50hz at 95+dB with low distortion, so I wanted to use their output but also enforce low end with subs (4 of them) so that all bed channels are full range.
Second complication was to run LFE distribution to the same 8 towers (center was spared as busy enough) to further smooth overall bass response in their support range/SPL etc.
Third complication (and the easiest) to solve was to add a dedicated small sub to the center to reinforce the sub 100hz range, and gain a fine tuning tool to achieve preference over reference.
So after this tedious journey I am done tweaking and upgrading and enjoying my favourite movies and shows in peace like never before. If someone mentions REW, sorry ditched all the files so I can't potentially start wondering if I did the right thing. This is the lock the door and throw away the key point. Overall response from memory is pretty smooth in the low end to some +/- 1.5dB, phase and group delay are far from ideal but at the end not too bad, waterfalls charts are great until 30-ish hz but that's the room and that's good enough for me.
Some members might be more responsible in managing their approach to perfection with such large HT setup so kudos to them. This was my way.

I overcomplicated my HT (first one in the signature), which proved to be a good and bad thing in the long run. Bad thing is that I spent too much time integrating and eventually gave up and called a professional calibrator to finish the job as I just got sick of spending my free time on (literally) endless tweaking. When he was done we reviewed so many graphs that I can't even remember the number and listened to some of alternatives to finally decide which one is the winner. Good thing is that I am now beyond any desire to upgrade any gear so this cured both my upgrade and tweak habits of the past.
First complication was to run LFE+Mains as I have 8 towers plus big center that reach down to 30-50hz at 95+dB with low distortion, so I wanted to use their output but also enforce low end with subs (4 of them) so that all bed channels are full range.
Second complication was to run LFE distribution to the same 8 towers (center was spared as busy enough) to further smooth overall bass response in their support range/SPL etc.
Third complication (and the easiest) to solve was to add a dedicated small sub to the center to reinforce the sub 100hz range, and gain a fine tuning tool to achieve preference over reference.
So after this tedious journey I am done tweaking and upgrading and enjoying my favourite movies and shows in peace like never before. If someone mentions REW, sorry ditched all the files so I can't potentially start wondering if I did the right thing. This is the lock the door and throw away the key point. Overall response from memory is pretty smooth in the low end to some +/- 1.5dB, phase and group delay are far from ideal but at the end not too bad, waterfalls charts are great until 30-ish hz but that's the room and that's good enough for me.
Some members might be more responsible in managing their approach to perfection with such large HT setup so kudos to them. This was my way.