We do however  recommend making use of hi-fi speakers, headphones and car stereos to hear how your mixes and productions sound in the real world,  balancing your mixes so that they sound good on as many different systems as possible, as every different playback system has a slightly different tone and character it imparts upon the sound.

To get a feel for a new set of speakers or headphones you should set aside some time to use them to listen to music that you are used to hearing and listen to often. This will help you get used to any peaks or dips that are present in the speakers, or headphones frequency response. Every set of speakers, and every set of headphones sound different, so being used to the sound of the ones you use for producing your audio helps you to more consistently pull a good sound.

Monitor Speakers:

Benefits:

• You don't have to put up with wearing headphones.
• You are able to hear the phasing between the left and right channels, which is heard as peaks and dips in different parts of the frequency spectrum of the sound..
• Not as bad for your ears as headphones, not as fatiguing to use.

Drawbacks:

• The sound you hear is affected by the acoustics of the listening environment, and the sound you hear will be affected by the different resonances and reverberation within the room. This is why most studios have an acoustically treated control room.
• Not good if you have flatmates or neighbours that don't like noise.

Headphones:

Benefits:

• The sound you hear is not being affected by the acoustics of the listening environment, meaning you can hear the sound exactly as it is.
• Better if your have flatmates or neighbours close by.
• Headphones are easily portable. This means if you are used to the sound of a particular set of headphones you can easily take them with you and be able to pull a good sound wherever you go.

Drawbacks:

• You are unable to hear the phasing between the left and right channels, although this can be remedied by using a phase meter on the audio, available in software such as iZotope Ozone and Waves PAZ Analyser.
• Can easily damage your ears at high volumes. You should always be careful of the volume levels when you are using headphones and take regular breaks to allow your ears to rest.

Regardless of whether your choose monitor speakers or headphones you should always make sure to take regular breaks when listening to audio, to allow your ears to "rest". After all, if you don't look after your ears, they won't keep letting you listen to awesome audio!