On the one hand, the difference can be explained like this: sound engineers want to hear the defects in the source material, home listeners don't. On the other

On the one hand, the difference can be explained like this: sound engineers want to hear the defects in the source material, home listeners don't. On the other hand, as a home listener, if you choose a pair of speakers that transform the sound in some way which appears to sound better, how can you be confident that everything you'll ever listen to on them will actually suite this "betterness" that the speakers provide? On the functional side, there's certainly not as many factors at play with speakers as with headphones, but there are a few: Smaller studio speakers sometimes are expected to be transported, and their surface finish being scuff-resistant is more important than the polished oak finish or whatever that the home listener market might want. Another case is that broadcasters are often very concerned with the support lifetime of the speakers, it's not unheard of for replacement drivers to still be available 20 years after purchase, for example.