Using a studio monitor for home listening?

Studio monitors are thought to be ruthlessly revealing and not possessed of the common dips and roll-offs which make home speakers enjoyable. Due to inevitable imperfections, good speaker systems are "voiced" by their designers to achieve desired goals. So before you decide which speakers suit you best, consider your own goals: the unadorned electronic truth? the emotional content? the gee-whiz factor? the foot tapping? Then find some software that displays those qualities and take it with you to your speaker audition.

No incompatibilities, but very often commerically available studio monitors probably are not the best (as in "most natural") speakers for high quality music reproduction in the home. Never made much sense to me that this was the case, but the needs of a studio are very different than our needs in a listening room environment. I'd recommend you listen critically before making a commitment.

Rockvirgo, my only add to your comments is that they imply that studio monitors are "accurate". Often they are not accurate but have tipped frequency extremes and/or upper midranges to exaggerate certain portions of the sound spectrum - those inaccuracies make them "ruthlessly revealing." And ruthlessly amusical.

It all depends on what type of "studio monitor" you're talking about. Some are very accurate and musical (e.g., LS3/5A, Harbeths) and well-suited to home use; others aren't good for much of anything except getting stupid-loud (this camp would include the classic JBLs, Tannoys, Westlakes, and anything else using horn drivers).