Does Anyone Use Pro Audio Speakers as their Main?

@engineears

All in all my experience is tremendously positive. Studio monitors are cheap, they take insane amounts of EQ without batting an eyelash, have fantastic off axis response, are amazingly detailed. I’ve stuck with this system for 20 years and find it is more convincing to listen to than friends’ systems costing an order of magnitude more.

Thank you for that.

That was exactly what I was looking for, first hand experience.

If I were to upgrade today, I’d just get better monitors from Genelec or Neumann.

Perhaps I’ve dropped by the ASR forum a little too often but I’m beginning to think the same.

I’m sure it would be interesting to see the likes of these going up against the great and the good from domestic audio.

@engineears 

Bigger monitors geared toward mid-field listening or main monitors shouldn't have that issue, but they're not cheap. Just don't think that you can get away with the little desktop monitors in a full sized listening room.

Agreed.

Anything that's only for for near field listening is hardly going to work in a domestic setup and anything that can't get down to a solid 40Hz is probably going to need a sub.

For me, monitors aren't a way to save money, they're a way to get better accuracy and more control.

Yes, good loudspeakers do not come cheap.

Good accurate loudspeakers even more so.

But it's that word 'accurate' that's rarely ever mentioned when it comes to domestic loudspeakers.

As for on board DSP, I can see nothing wrong with having that option. In fact it's a growing trend for many domestic models these days of having some limited way of adjusting treble output built in.

Perhaps yet another approach is to look out for brands that produce models for both markets eg ATC, PMC, JBL etc?

@fac 

Surely that can't be right for all pro audio speakers?

Some of these manufacturers pride themselves on having the flattest possible frequency response that would make many domestic designs look positively skewed.

Their opinions are usually backed up by plenty of data too.

@cmpunk01 

That's a good summing up of the many reasons why someone may well choose pro audio speakers.

Versality is certainly an important factor and pro speakers always tend to be far more versatile. This includes having more ways of adjusting the speaker to the room via built-in equalising controls/switches.

All mainly due to having an amplifier built-in.

This pro/domestic dichotomy has always appeared to be a little strange given that they are both seeking to do the same job, namely the accurate reproduction of the signal they are being fed.

So you'd think that the only significant difference would be the cosmetic appearances, but alas no.

Domestic loudspeakers rarely, if ever, claim to put accuracy first.