Am I too close for a large monitor?

Dear Slutz, I am upgrading my monitors (used Mackie 824s for over 10 years and my mixes are not that bad). I can spend up to $5000. I have three decisions: (1) which brand? (2) Which size? (3) Can I avoid a sub? Here’s the size dilemma: my rooms is a good size (19.5 x 15.5 x 9 ft), so maybe I could use a large enough monitor to avoid a sub; but my ears are only about 3.5 feet away from the monitors because of the setup of the room and all the advice I get is that at this distance, I need to keep small (6.5" woofer).

• The room is well treated: ceiling joist is exposed and filled with 12 inches fiberglass throughout; 8 Real-trap Mondo and Mini bass traps in corners; carpet. The room is filled with furniture and equipment and books and is quite dead.


• My work is mixing and in-the-box mastering of a very wide variety ranging from rock and pop to electronica. So I do need bass down to 30-40hz.


• I do not care if the monitors “sound good”, I care only how well mixes will translate (I am somewhat confused by all the posts where people say the monitors sound good. Is this relevant?)


• I could possibly hang the monitors to get them further away from me, but they would be facing down on me.


• I would like to use the focal twins, or eve 307, but I seem to be too close. And then again, if I go with them, will I still need a sub to get to 30-40hz?

So is the solution to use the Focal solo 6 or Eve 206 with a sub? (I hate this, subs are so complicated to get right). Thanks in advance for your ideas, Pete

Am I too close for a large monitor?