Monitors

A very weird question...trying to think of some analogy...uh...what if you kept buying faster cars until you exploded into space? Nicer houses until you owned the entire country of Monaco...by the way, regarding reference sound, I was recently at a ballet in Boston with whatever orchestra that is (Boston Ballet Orchestra?) and we were in the second row center with an empty seat in front of us. The musicians were in my face sort of, and I realized that based on the fact that every instrument is its own sound source in its own spot with complicated phase relationships with every other instrument and pit reflections (!) etc. before the sound hit my earballs...I was again struck my the fact that NO speaker system or any rig however precious can ever accurately recreate that sound. I listen to classical stuff in my fabulous (I even have one silver cable!) system and enjoy every minute, but man...the real thing is amazingly unique.

Some studios use consumer based speakers for mixing, and certainly mastering labs do. Speakers like Yamaha NS10s sounded dreadful to my ears but became a standard used by a lot of studios...how anybody could stand these things remains a mystery to me but I get it. Standardization. JBLs in the 60s and 70s had a frequency map like a smile...all lows and highs...big Altec A7s are simply too big for most consumers so smaller furniture-like versions were made...I had a pair of A7s for many years and loved 'em but not in my house. If a system sounds good to you that's what counts, and wondering if so called "studio monitors" are somehow "special" is easily remedied by buying a pair. They might sound great...or not.