[Thomas W. Bethe]

Bob,

Good speakers + a good room should = good sound.

But sometimes it does not.

Sometimes people have different things they are listening for. Some of my clients like a big bass end over anything else. Some of them are very concerned with the vocal and instrument fundamentals and could care less about the extreme ends of the spectrum. Some of them get off on distorted guitars or the purity of a solo flute. We all know that speakers need to be very neutral sounding along with a good sounding room so that you can master and not have the speakers influencing your decisions. You should hear through the speakers but you should not be hearing the speakers themselves. There are speakers on the market that make everything you put through them sound GREAT there are others that are almost too surgical and after listening to them for a while you get fatigued which again is not something that you want to have when you are doing an 8 hour mastering session. They may sound incredible but it is like putting your ears though a day long calisthenics workout and at the end of the day you want to rest your ears for the next round of calisthenics the next day.

You are in all the different meanings of the word " the master" so I am sure whatever you pick will suit your needs and style of mastering.

If possible you should audition the speakers you are interested in the same room at the same time so you can switch back and forth between them but of course you already know that.

Best of luck!

I hope you find what you want.