My ears are shot. I was thinking of buying a good set of monitor speakers then asked myself, why bother, they are not going to make any difference anyway with my ears. I never really did any recording, that was left up to people I knew. Since I moved a year and a half ago, and being a loner, I don't know anyone here and the music scene is almost nonexistent for anything but bluegrass and country, so I haven't met any musicians to hang with or work with me. Trying to mix on my own for really the first time I see just how difficult it is. I never really listened to the mix, just the song if you know what I mean. Recently I have been listening to the mix instead of the song. Being old school it is mostly classic rock. The difference between the engineering between lets say, Stones, Beatles and the Moody Blues is striking. The Moodies mixes are really muddy and not very good comparatively speaking. I have heard better mixes from the 50s. If I were one of the band members, after listening to my mix, and say Sgt Peppers, I would have insisted the record company find another engineer. I know most bands under contract at that time had no say in who was running the studio and hiring the engineers but I don't know how the Moodies manager and the studio execs put up with it? As far as ego goes, as a performer, I learned long ago that there is always someone bigger and badder just around the corner and to keep it in check. As a musician I know I am middle of the road and if anything maybe a tad above average. As a singer I am below average. As and engineer I have no clue yet. I think I am a fairly good songwriter and arranger but that also is open for debate. As far as those monitors go, maybe I will buy a good set if someone comes into the picture who has good ears and knows what they are doing. As far as mixes go, I have heard plenty of mixes from the fifties that beat most of the mixes that come out of home studios so I know it is not the gear per se. Of course that is subjective and just an opinion. I will add a question here, how does one know they have a well treated room? I see the old clapping trick, listening for echoes and such but are there any tried and true methods. Identifying a real bad room seems fairly easy?