I suffer from tinnitus and dumped my old system and started anew. I wanted a tube dac and bought the Orchid and found a used transport online. I read and sampled some used stuff locally and found the amp and speakers that had the warm and darker sound I needed. I put in some Duelund cables.
But the speakers on stands were a no-go. I had some small Caselogic CD racks. I flipped them down and put a piece of plywood on top and that was the ticket. About 7" off the ground was perfect. A friend of mine built the component rack and the low stands. I'm experimenting with butcher block to see about getting them a little higher. I'll probably take them out however.
I talked to Steve at Decware and he suggested the Zrock3. I got on the list and finally got that. It's just the ticket. I was using it for my transport and DAC. It really made a difference with some CDs. Then a friend lent me the Manley Chinook so I could use the Zrock3 with my analog front end. To be honest, I didn't think the Manley was that great on it's own. For my hearing the Musical Fidelity phono stage was fine on its own. A little darker and better. But when I used the Zrock, I realized I was going to need an outboard phono stage since that made the difference here as well.
Good to know the background behind the setup. Makes complete sense now. And it is great that you are enjoying the music despite the tinnitus. Have fun.
I updated my description. I put the speakers down low for off-axis listening because I have pretty bad tinnitus. I can listen for a record or two, then I need a couple days off. I don't angle them up and I might move them lower. The surprising thing is that it sounds pretty good.
I had - and loved - an original Musical Fidelity A1. Until it went up in a puff of smoke. That Class A sound was addictive.
Mapleshade used to sell speaker stands that positioned "bookshelf" speakers close to the floor, like yours. His stands aimed the tweeter up towards the listener's ears. He (Pierre Sprague) always claimed that the bass and midrange performance with smaller speakers was superior with the close-to-the-floor mounting.
Interesting speaker positioning. Not seem before; but way back in the 2010s, I had read threads about people doing this. How does this setup affect the soundstage? Are you sitting on the floor too?
