That is exactly what I was thinking - buy whatever the upgrade to SRM-12s was. I would go to their site, select 'studio monitors' and read all about the new magnets and/or other improvements.

Here is what I found:

Tannoy - Studio - Summary

Not a single monitor that is not near-field. Not a single woofer larger than 8 inches.

The closest thing I could find was in their DC12i, sold as a home theater speaker. Maybe that would work.

JBL seems to have ONE, amidst all the near fields.

Apparently these manufacturers now think all studios are located in small spare bedrooms. ;-)

-Mike

Yes, interesting comment.

I was actually already looking at these. I love listening to music on JBLs, but have always been afraid to mix on them, because they always seemed to flatter anything sent to them. I think they have become much more neutral over the years, but old fears die hard. I will definitely try to have a listen when I can.

I have been talking about main music monitors (meaning two for stereo), but my real problem is slightly different. I want to do 5.1 mixes. My control room is small enough that I am sure I can use near fields for that there, but my main recording room, which is set up to double as a theater, really needs full size or mid size monitors (it is roughly a square 24 feet on a side with some of the corners clipped off , 10-12 foot ceiling. ). Remember this is basically a home studio (with some commercial ideas that may work out - in which case upgrading speakers wil not be a problem, or may not, in which case I'd just as soon not spend $25,000 - M2s - on a personal use studio ;-) I'm picky about audio, but not wealthy. Whatever I wind up buying 5 of twice, I will be feeling serious pain...

Finding nearfield choices is not much of a problem. The bigger ones are much more difficult.

'Esoteric' is out.

Right now I see

Tannoy - DC12i - about $1200 each.

JBL - LSR6332 about $1400 and I really can't go much higher in price.

I've considered building some myself, it's within my technical skill level, and by the time I am done building these rooms my carpentry skills should be quite well honed.

Here is another crazy idea - why not just buy REAL theater speakers? I would not have considered this, figuring it was too expensive, until I saw this:

JBL 3632 Three-Way Bi-Amplified ScreenArray Cinema Loudspeaker System at Performance Audio

$1600 is barely more than the JBLs, and imagine being able to say to a producer, "No, this is not LIKE a theater system to proof your mixes on, it IS a full THX approved theater system, exactly the same as you find in many multiplexes".

Undoubtedly a bit more optimized for 'loud' than ' accurate', but I am not sure I care. I can worry about the fine details in the control room ;-)

-Mike