I've wondered about that philosophy as well, and here is what I've decided after a little pondering, and for what it's worth.
Firstly, I feel BOTH ideally is what is needed, I'm not in the one or the other camp. Having said that, I've looked at Ethans site ( who hasn't?) and at one stage I worked out the ideal amount of bass trapping recommended, and I can't remember what it was but it was an awful lot of bass traps in a not very large room!! Sure, being cynical, he sells them so maybe it's exagerated ( tho I don't think it is exagerated cynically for the sake of sales) but nonetheless, from memory, the cost of the recommended amount of bass traps was around 2000-2500 US dollars (?), which of course translated to aussie dollars.....(or maybe it was 2500 aus...). My room is about 9m*6m*5m, so to do that properly would cost a little more, and I'm not even addressing the aesthetics question!!!:huh:
In any case to do the job properly it is not a small amount. If you can make your own then of course that changes it somewhat but I gather S95 will be purchasing his.
On the other hand, the cost of the DEQ is but a fraction of that cost, will eq your room ( which is part of the desired solution laid out above) and correct your speakers as well if needs be!:bigsmile: Sure you will need a mike as well, but the cost is an awful lot less. The amount of eq available far exceeds that of the bfd's, but that is probably of no consequence as the BFD's contain more than enough in any case.
In my example above, the cost of the room treatment can be split, get a DEQ and a smaller amount of bass trapping, best of both worlds.
Anyway, I'd go for the DEQ first, quicker, cheaper and easier. Then again I'd make my own bass traps but I think you get my take on this question.