Interesting topic. In addition to the characteristics already stated, what about dispersion? I describe my mastering monitors (Genelec 8361A) as ‘selfish’ because there is just one sweet spot! And the sound stage depth and width imaging is very precise from that sweet spot. Most of the mix monitors I have heard have a bit more dispersion, and home audio speakers generally have a lot of dispersion to accomodate multiple listeners sitting dispersed around the room. I have used a binocular analogy to describe it to non-technical friends: I can ‘see’ the hairs on a fly with my perfectly focused binocs, and you can still see it’s a fly, but lacking precise details, with your slightly ‘out of focus’ binocs. Sure, I have a few crazy audiophile friends (the kind that spend $5 k on interconnects…) who have point source speakers focused on a single listening position, but that’s not the norm in home audio.