I was in the same boat as you. Tried going with the monitor + sub routine and found that getting a sub to match well with monitors was a real challenge. Just when you get the sub adjusted/placed with one recording you put in another and have to go back and tweak the output of the sub to get it to dissapear. I gave up and bought the Hales Revelation 3s. Then had to buy a better amp to drive them. It is nice when the speaker designer has control over the whole freq range. (most of it at least) Are the Hales perfect? By no means. They do set a soundstage as well as my former monitors and they go down low... not into to the nether regions but they really are more than tasty for music. Had to blow some extra cash on an amp to drive them whereas the monitors you have more flexibility on choosing amplification. Buy a good tube setup for the top and use powered subs for the bottom is how I used to think but I never did pull it off successfully. I'm sure it is possible, just not easy.
