IMac 27'' too big for me

Question

Hello all,
After a lot of research on many forums I got a new iMac 27'' 2013 few days ago. I wanted to use it for internet, iPhoto and some finance management. I went ahead and got the best model I could get hoping to keep it for atleast 5 years. Based on some recommedations I also ordered the big screen - 27''. I was really excited to see the big screen at Apple store and thought it would be right for me. Now after few days of working, the excitement died down completely. I face the following problems:
1. 27'' looks too huge in my living room and turns everyones attention to it while entering the room (I personally do not like this)
2. The screen is too huge which makes me sit way back to prevent moving my head left-right and top-bottom. Because of the high resolution the fonts are too small to read from that distance. This really strains my already poor eye sight.
3. It really hurts my neck after working with the screen for a while as I have to tilt my head to see the top part of the screen  (between that, I am 172cms tall). As I was afraid I would cause some damage to my neck, I went around to shop for a taller chair. I realized that I already have the tallest chair (unless I go for a Bar counter stool)
I am thinking of returning the 27'' and going for a smaller 21'' which I feel would suit my needs. My only concern is the screen resolution. I have worked with a Macbook Pro Retina and always try to compare screen quality with it. I knew that 27'' would not match the screen quality of Retina (due to the high pixel density on the former), I decided to compromise on it. Would going from 27'' with 2560 x 1440 to 21'' with 1920 x 1080 affect the viewing experience. To get a feel of it, I went down from 2560x1440 to 2048 x 1152 on the 27'' and the fonts already look big and the edges blurry. With a still lower resolution of 1920 x 1080 on 21'' would this go down further. In other words, would the screen quality of 27'' and 21'' with same screen resolution be the same. Or would it be better on 21'' due to the small screen size and there by less scaling affect.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

I am thinking of returning the 27'' and going for a smaller 21'' which I feel would suit my needs. My only concern is the screen resolution. I have worked with a Macbook Pro Retina and always try to compare screen quality with it.
You are within Apple's 14 day return window so they would exchange without question. 
I use a 21" screen and as I sit about 18" to 2ft from the screen to work, it is ideal.  As for the screen resolution,  I also have a retina MBP and there is no doubt that comparing the two, the retina screen is so sharp it makes the iMac screen look less crisp.  However, if I haven't used the MBP for a few days, the iMac screen looks great to me!!  And if I compare images on the iMac with my wife's relatively new 15" HP windows laptop, well the iMac wins hands down.
It wasn't until I got the retina screen that I thought the iMac was anything other than fantastically clear.  It's all comparative!!!