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A soft focus lens is often used on an aging actress to hide a few wrinkles. She still looks good unless you really zoom in. Mastering monitors are like a very sharp focus lens. They reveal everything - even the things you'd like to ignore as a listener. Lots of near field monitors fall into the 'soft focus' category. They make everything sound about the same, which is good for getting things in the ballpark but not so good for making final adjustments in a mastering context.
A mix that sounds good on larger speakers but falls apart on small speakers probably needs the full spectrum to represent the music. I wouldn't necessarily say it's bad mix. It might be that the small speakers just can't deliver the musical message as well. You'd be missing out on a lot of the fun with the 1812 Overture played back on NS10s.
GR
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