The whole thing, I believe,  can be summed up by saying get a decent pair of speakers, the best you can afford to buy and learn their strengths and weaknesses.

Good mixes can be produced on just about any pair of halfway decent monitors in just about any room by someone who understands the mixing process and knows and have learned their speakers. 

All you need do is listen to the songs forum to see this truth in action. No one here has the same exact setup in their studio as far as room size, treatment, speakers, wall surfaces, distances, speaker placement...and yet the quality that a number of the people can consistently produce is nothing short of amazing and quite professional sounding....as good as anything on the radio. 

I just got ARC 2! Didn't have high expecations, but bought it sort of as a last resort, since I've been spending a lot of time and money on both commercial foam and DIY rockwool installations, with only limited results. 

I'm impressed! I've been running around the house with the mic, measuring different speakers and positions, and it really works! Especially my little ADAM A3Xs have benefited (My Dynaudios were much closer to flat in my default position). When I got them I was surprised how muddy and middy they were (they sounded good when I tested them at the store). So I've been using them with a 3 dB boost on the tweeters, but they've still sounded very low-mid focused. 

Running ARC 2 at my mixing position reveals (among other things) a ~12 dB 160 Hz bump in both speakers! Using ARC compensation, I can finally see what people mean by ADAM speakers being bright and detailed!

In fact, I'm astounded by how similar my two sets sound now. Maybe I should sell the ADAMs (I originally got them as a "second opinion" set)?
As you can tell I'm pretty excited about ARC (had just about given up on my little room). 

Sven