I've always wondered how people control the volume on studio monitors and assumed it was done through a mixer. I have a modest home studio and that's one of the reasons I decided not to get powered monitors, that and I tend to believe that if you can get it to sound good on consumer grade speakers, which is what the average listener will hear it on, then what's the point in having ridiculously expensive monitors? Unless you're a fairly big pro studio, I don't see the point.
I have a Delta 1010 24/96 sound card routed out to a sony surround-type receiver and some nice home tower speakers and it sounds pretty good to me. Is that so wrong?