Being a designer and manufacturer of both floor standers and monitors I can comfortably say, assuming equal quality, that the total output (SPL) is what is the biggest compromise. Driving some monitor speakers to higher volumes will push them to higher distortion levels and dynamic peaks can be truncated. Adding subwoofers won't fix that. Much of what makes a system sound dynamic is happening in the midrange. In our monitors we use one high out AMT (designed and built in house) and four 6 inch woofers to achieve good total output. In our 7000 cf (approximate) evaluation room our monitors produce good SPLs but nothing like our towers. At low to reasonably loud levels they both sound great (to us). You can guess which sounds better when really pushed.
This is my long winded way of saying build a dedicated room, if you can, and keep your floor standers.
Good monitors are a wonderful thing. Just make sure you understand them.
This is my long winded way of saying build a dedicated room, if you can, and keep your floor standers.
Good monitors are a wonderful thing. Just make sure you understand them.