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Professional vs. Consumer speakers

I had another question I hope people here can shed some light on. Why don't more people buy professional studio monitors for home use? I have read some more reviews on pro speakers and most of those mfgr's say that audiophiles will not like their speakers. Because they are flat response, clear and accurate.
Isn't hi-fi supposed to be just those qualities? Also, ATC for example, uses soft dome tweeters which seem more like DynAudio's than metallic B&W etc. So I don't really see them as being harsh or bright.
Has anyone here tried or owned some of these "pro" speakers? Are we better off with the consumer models currently available?
cdc
cdc OP
1,412 posts
 
Thank you for the varied responses. It looks like this is not as simple as I'd hoped. So the near-field monitors are out. Maybe main monitors would be okay. It is hard to find these kind of speakers to audition.
I have read J. Gordon Holt's reviews of Westlake and ATC and he was really for the "pro" speakers as consumer speakers were overly lush and lacked the harshness that real world music really has.
One thing with pro speakers that I think is more universally agreed on being a good thing are the active designs.
blackie
221 posts
 
What do you mean "harshness that real world music really has"? Listen to a jazz quartet, a symphony or a great rock band not at earbleed levels and it is not nearly as "harsh" as even a very good playback system. High quality playback systems strive to eliminate that electronically induced harshness that was introduced in the recording process. I have never heard a music system that can reproduce the dynamics, black background, clean extended highs, deep powerful bass and purity of midrange of an actual musical event. Maybe one day though...
cdc OP
1,412 posts
 
Have you listened to ATC active 100's? Still not quite as dynamic as live but the sound was very clean. Maybe the lack of odd-order harmonics that are designed out of the drivers or the active coupling to the driver.
By "harshness" I was talking about the sharpness that, say brass instruments produce. I agreed that live instruments do not have the distortion you get in a stereo. But that's why I liked the ATC's.
I have not listened to many tube or SET amplifiers or records but they supposedly round off the "rough edges" of music that are supposed to be there but some people do not like to hear. So I understood J. Gordon Holt's description to mean that some people do not want reality in their stereo - enter devices to add euphonic distortion / coloration / smoothing of what is really being played.
I am currently trying to find a smaller speaker than ATC 100's that retains their dynamics, clarity and lack of distortion. Thiels are clear but I can't listen to them. Maybe smaller ATC's or some other pro monitor speaker.
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