My experience with pro gear is in line with what many have said here vs. consumer home stuff. One major area I tend to find largely "no contest" between the two markets, is that pro equipment tends to stomp all over most consumer high end speaker gear dynamically!...no contest really. Except for the likes of actives and horn loaded ultra high senstivity home audio designs, and even speakers with built in powered woofers and such, pro audio speakers have a dynamic advantage over the average full range home offerings.
One saving grace in a smaller acoustic space of most domestic homes, is crossing over your "audiophile" or "mid-fi speakers" as "small", or using a crossover to a sub somehow, making the system more efficient, even bi-amped.
Basically, running full range, you can set 100 consumer home audio full range speakers next to 100 pro audio full range speakers, and the dynamics and efficiency advantage is going to be decidely on the pro side!...again, no contest. But, at least in a dedicated HT setting, your going to get much needed dynamic help by the use of "crossover" and "bi-amp" applications from sub/sat set-up's, or by at least the assistance of adding a powered sub to the system. Also the smaller acoustic space, as well as close relative proximity to speakers in a home environement is going to help greatly with efficiency, sensitivity needs, as well as dynmic needs of a system! Still, care is needed to try and make up for generally less dynamically able lower sensitivity/efficiency speakers that are the norm from most consumer speaker systems! Again, getting the sub integrated helps, and is deffinitely needed!
One saving grace in a smaller acoustic space of most domestic homes, is crossing over your "audiophile" or "mid-fi speakers" as "small", or using a crossover to a sub somehow, making the system more efficient, even bi-amped.
Basically, running full range, you can set 100 consumer home audio full range speakers next to 100 pro audio full range speakers, and the dynamics and efficiency advantage is going to be decidely on the pro side!...again, no contest. But, at least in a dedicated HT setting, your going to get much needed dynamic help by the use of "crossover" and "bi-amp" applications from sub/sat set-up's, or by at least the assistance of adding a powered sub to the system. Also the smaller acoustic space, as well as close relative proximity to speakers in a home environement is going to help greatly with efficiency, sensitivity needs, as well as dynmic needs of a system! Still, care is needed to try and make up for generally less dynamically able lower sensitivity/efficiency speakers that are the norm from most consumer speaker systems! Again, getting the sub integrated helps, and is deffinitely needed!