Although the HS80M aren't very similar to the NS-10 in sound, they are a descendant and share the designer.  I've only been in a zillion studios myself, and see all kinds of weird setups and I'd say especially on meter bridges, they were laid on their sides.  Generally having the tweets to the outside helps to spread the stereo field too.  BTW...what brand of TP do you use on your tweets!! ;-)  I'm going to guess most of the "old guys" around here, can't hear over 15Khz anyway...so I'm not sure what all the excitement is about.
I totally respect the other opinions AND people in this thread, but I think we are putting a magnifying glass on the big picture.  I mean really, the inexpensive speakers and home setups we're talking about, equalize out a lot of things.

I used 2 ply for a little extra protection.

My son wanted to buy some active monitors and we went into a shop where they had lots set up. I must say I was very impressed with the Yamaha HS series. (I started with them Chris because of your great recommendation) We were comparing HS5's to HS7's mainly and to other brands too. He ended up with the HS7's (manily budget) and they certainly sounded better in the bottom end than the HS5's. I believe the HS7's and 8's are similar but I could also imagine the 8's just going down that little bit further. (nice!)
 
So Chris I can really see why you like the Yamaha's They are very very good indeed especially for the money. We got the 7's for $570 pair.
 
We had some super reference material to test with. The KRK's were nowhere and I mean nowhere compared to the Yamaha's. Completely dull and lifeless. The cheaper Mackies were OK but a little hyped in the low end and coloured. I have the HR824's and they are in a league of their own Mackie wise but they are also considerably more expensive too. (Mine are on concrete stands and this changes a lot. The low end becomes non coloured and smoother and more extended. As a result the mids and highs move forward slightly. These speakers on concrete stands sound like a completely different speaker, hard to believe but true! Concrete stands are the ultimate)
 
The new JBL's sounded excellent as well and were very well balanced. They (the shop) say the Yamaha's are being preferred over much more expensive monitors too.
 
I have lived with NS10's too for about 6 months a while back. I repaired a set for someone and had the use of them for a while. They are very forward mids and highs wise and poor in the low end. They are good for translation but I don't like long term listening on them though. The new HS series although they have a white cone that is where the similarity ends though. They are way better than NS10's. Nice low end and lovely present mids and highs that you can listen to for long periods. A well balanced speaker overall. Yes the mids and highs are also a little forward but nothing like NS10's.
 
 

Jeff, I like you in that I can tell that you love audio and recording.  That's an A+ in my book.  I can totally understand being totally swayed with a situation and totally confused why others just don't "get it".
I had the opportunity to be an engineer for several studios back in the old tape days, and I never could understand why bands would come record under the influence, or more so...why they couldn't hear out of tune instruments when they were sober!
I wonder what some cinder style blocks would do for speaker stands.  I'm pretty creative in making things look better than they are.

and just to ramble...which I like to do.. I had to mix on some NS10s in a studio in Nashville once and that was the ONLY set of speakers they had.  I was familiar with the speaker, prior to being in that situation, but my bass response totally bummed me out when I got home and played my mixes.  I think I cleaned the dust off all the nearby furniture.  They're great midrange comparison speakers...like the lil Auratones...but I got lost below 100Hz.
 

and because of G.A.S.  ...some JBL305's are on the radar for the next "impulse" buy....just because.  Sweetwater here in the USA has a 1/2 off on the 2nd speaker, and they're pretty inexpensive to begin with.
 

The JBL's pulled up very nice but I was hearing a larger woofer version, (308's I am pretty sure) not sure exactly but in the same size format as the Yamaha HS series. They were great and had a lovely open mids and highs like the Yamaha's did too. In fact switching between them it was sometimes hard to know which we were on which sort of spells the fact they must both be reasonably accurate.
 
If you wanted to use the smaller JBL's as extras to your Yamaha's then yes they could be excellent for that. If they were my only monitor I would go for the 8" woofers. They (5 " woofer model) would end up somewhere in between your main HS8's and the Auratones. I am finding the big switch between main speakers and small speaker OK too and I dont feel the need so much for something in between. But it would not hurt I guess. More the merrier!
 
I almost said in my last post that the NS10's sounded like hyped Auratones on steroids! But you beat me to it. We must think alike at times. Yes the bottom end can catch you out with NS10's for sure. I still had my Mackie HR824's when I had the NS10's so I had decent bottom end to compare. Danny Danzi has mentioned a sub with NS10's is much better and I could imagine that being the case.

What makes this thread interesting are the comments on the NS10 as stand alone monitors w/o sub.  In the old days of my carreer, we did not have subs to embellish the NS10's so it was either the full blown monitors or the NS10's to mix with.  We didn't have subs.  The result was that if you knew how to interpret the NS10's, you would get pretty close to a good mix.  This is after knowing your mains well and NS10's.  Then, you would better know how the NS10's would translate.  
 
For me, I never did learn how the NS10's transilated and therefore could not honestly rely on them for mixing.  Howver, I saw many a professional engineer to it and I give them all the credit they deserve.  
 
Bottomline is know your systems weakness and strengths.  It is up to your ears to know how well you are doing.
 
Rimshot
 

dang...I meant JBL308 ...not 305...  but those would be nice too.  

I can think of no good reason not to lay speakers on their sides, as long as their tweeters' dispersion pattern isn't horizontal. Some studio speakers (notably JBLs) do have oval-shaped waveguides, but they're typically designed to be easily rotated so that the cabinets could be laid horizontally if desired. Tweeters in many (most?) studio speakers, however, exhibit the same dispersion characteristics at any angle. 
 
My own speakers sit proudly vertical just like the pictures in the catalog. They look like little soldiers at attention, not lazing about on their sides.