It's odd, I used to have two sets of monitors, one for near-field listening, and one for mid-field, in my own studio. Both were Genelecs most recently, but in earlier years that would vary, as I tried a lot of things. The Genelecs were chosen because they seem to have less crossover distortion in the midrange, which is where vocals sit. One thing about a studio is that I have the singer live, and I can hear how close the midrange comes to what I hear in the room. That isn't a bad thing!
Also, all of the audio post mix houses in my area use Genelec, so at least I had an idea how things would sound in client mixes where picture and music were married. Unpleasant surprises are never a good thing.
What I discovered is that the mid-field speakers were so affected by room modes, etc., even in my room treated with ASC bass trapping products (at one point I had 8 tube traps in the room, a rather garish sight), that it was pointless to use the larger speakers. The larger 8 and 10 inch woofers were exciting room modes, and screwing up the bass despite my efforts. Of course, in most rooms, hi fi listeners are in the mid field (or if it's a large room, in the far field).
I found that mixing in the near field on 6.5 inch speakers, that were much farther out from the walls, excited fewer room modes, and needed less treatment. So that's how I monitor.
Obviously, I wouldn't listen to music for pleasure in the near field any more than most folks. But that's where I am in the studio. I got rid of the bigger speakers. The Genelec 8040s are superb little monitors, and they work exceptionally well for me.
In the hi fi world, these would be similar in size to B&W 805s, etc.
I just wanted to say how my realization about monitoring and loudspeakers impacted my studio world. I finally realized that "stepping up" when the room can't handle the so-called "upgrade" speaker is actually not a great idea for my work, anyway.
