Worked on this a bit today....

[Panopticon]

Originally Posted by Tomer=Trance

the whole purpose of good accurate monitors is that the mix will translet butifuly on any system whether its a 20k audiophile hifi system or your mom's crappy kitchen 20 bucks radio.

That's exactly the reason. Good monitors, in theory, = a more portable mix. I often send mixes to my best friend (not telling him the reason), knowing that he only has small computer speakers. Sometimes he says, "Wow, that a cool song" or "That song sucked, WTF were you thinking?" and I figure I did a pretty good job mixing it, because he's listening to the song. If, however, he says, "I couldn't hear a lot of the parts, but it probably doesn't matter because I'm listening on computer speakers," I know that I have work yet to do.

The need for great monitors these days is higher than ever, because modern playback systems are getting worse and worse. iPod headphones and computer speakers are what you have to finally test with, and in order to get a mix banging on those, as well as quality systems, critical monitoring is essential.

FWIW, amazing sounding speakers have been around for more than 40 years, as well as amplification. Transducers aren't rocket science for the manufacturers, it's just a matter of making decisions between budget restraints, consumer interests, and the market demand for higher performing products. Speaker development in the last ten years has focused much more on finding different materials and crafting a more durable, longer lasting speaker. They've been sounding good for a long time...