Yo, Hottsauce! Home stereo speakers are designed to sound good. Monitors are designed to tell the truth. Stereo speakers put makeup on music. Monitors scrub the face of music clean. Home speakers are designed to fill a room with sound. Monitors fill 2 square feet with sound. There are certain frequency bands that aren't generally used in music, especially on the high end. Stereo speakers are generally designed not to produce those sounds, or to minimize them. Why? If it's not part of the music, then it must be *noise*- Hiss, hum, etc. Monitors are designed to reproduce *all* the sound, especially that which sucks. If you can't hear it, you can't get rid of it.
With really good recordings, often the difference between good audio speakers and good monitors is barely noticeable. On bad recordings, the difference is obvious. Good monitors are the main tool that was used to make those good recordings.-Richie