wst3
regardless, I just want to point out that a room that records well may not (and very likely will not) be a great monitoring environment.

Indeed! And this is where the compromises start. I rented this house because of the acoustics (and the price), but it's tiny and there's one room that has to serve for both recording and mixing. It's frustrating not having a dedicated space, but such is my lot at this time in my life.

My interest in reference recordings is because I want to make sure that the monitors are balanced, and giving me accurate reproduction so when I hear something in the mix I know it's REALLY in the mix and not just because I screwed up the setup. The advice you guys are giving is REALLY helpful!!!
 
The subwoofer came yesterday and the monitors should be here tomorrow.
 
 

The other important setup step is calibrating your speakers so that there is a consistent relationship between your audio interface output and perceived volume.
 
Bob Katz came up with what's called the K-system for doing just that. It's modeled on the way sound systems are set up in movie theaters. You will need an SPL meter to do it, but they're cheap and you can even download a free app for your smartphone that's not accurate but can get you into the ballpark.
 
Basically, the idea is to run white noise through your speakers at a specific dB level and adjust your volume control so that you're measuring 83dBSPL on each speaker or 86dBSPL on both. That way, you can correlate levels in your DAW to volume at your ears and be consistent when mixing. You don't need to mix at 86dB - that's too loud for most folks - but it's very important to mix at a consistent volume.

The manual for the subwoofer talks about this and KRK has the sound files on their website. It actually sounds like a really interesting process. I got the phone SPL app a while back. (It bugs me that it's not calibrated, but it sure is an easy way to harass the sound guy at shows.) I probably ought to get a real SPL meter. 
 
The monitors should be arriving this afternoon/evening and I'm super excited to set them up. My little Alesis monitors have been nice, but I've known they weren't telling me the whole story for a long time.

I have a proper SPL meter. Although you can spend thousands on them, the one I have is sufficient for speaker calibration, and it was only around $35. A quick check on Amazon lists products from $18 to $109.
 
Just make sure you get one that has A- and C-weighting and a reasonable noise floor (e.g. < 30 dB). Your mobile app will probably do OK, as long as you can verify it, perhaps with someone else's meter or a monitoring system that's already been calibrated. Remember, the important thing isn't the absolute numbers, but rather assuring you always mix at a consistent volume.