Lets face the facts.

If something works for you and you can turn out work that pays with it then use it. If you can't then try something different until you find something that works for you and your clients.

As for the clients listening arrangements....

I have been in too many homes and cars where the bass and treble controls are all the way to the right full on. The compressor is on (if the car or stereo system has one) and maybe a loudness control is on as well. The speaker system sounds boomy and hissy and a lot of people seem to like it sounding like a 1980's Disco. I had one client who listened to all her mixes in her car. If she did not like the sound in the car we had to keep changing it until she did. Her car stereo sounded terrible. The speakers were torn, the amp was distorted and the car rattled. But that was her standard. I also have a client who has a $50,000 sound system in his home and he can hear what side the conductor parts his hair on. He is a "golden ear" stereo freak who spends more on speaker wire and audio dodads that I spend on food for a year. Which system am I doing the mastering or the recording for? The system that sounds like dog do do or the one that you can hear cars passing by outside during the recording session and tell which way they were headed?

As to monitoring levels.....

Do what works for you. But be aware that the FM curve is the flattest at 83 dBSPL and if you mix at a lower or higher level you may not getting a "flat" response. Add to that what you room and your speakers are doing to the signal and it is AWESOME that any of us can do any work at all. We need something like the BBC use to have a calibrated room and calibrated speakers that everyone uses so you can mix in studio A and master in Studio B and still be listening to the same source.

MTCW

-TOM-