When I read your question I didn't take it that you are looking for advice, just curious as to others thoughts. So here are my thoughts.
To the extent my budget and time allowed I have "studied" this in the most thorough way possible. Found Audiogon almost ten years ago and began buying speakers for "study" in with my ears. What I have found is that I want a speaker that I can listen to for hours without thinking about the speakers, system or any other audio related gotchas.
Although I can't imagine not looking for something better, I do believe I have found what gives me all I want. I can listen for hours (if I ever have the time) and while doing this I keep turning it up just a smidge more without it irritating me. This isn't possible with most of the speakers I've owned. In fact, I recently purchased a pair of monitors valued at more than 3 times my current monitors and I kept turning them down to save my ears. They had way too much of the "audiophile" flavor.
How many speakers have I owned? I swear I could not answer that question with certainty.
