It took me several weeks to find time to finish the stands (such as it were – their final form re-confirmed my intent to pursue getting some better-made stands at a later date) and get them into the den. These stands were sort of an experiment, testing an idea for a stand design that I figured could be recreated in nicer material or finished better later. Finally, over the Memorial Day weekend, I got the stands in the house and pulled the speakers down onto them.

As soon as I had the Bookshelves down on the stands, I fired the system up for some initial listening. The effects were readily apparent as a widening of the soundstage and improved imaging. Some of the soundstage improvement is likely due to the speakers being spread out a bit more, but I really think the imaging is due to the speakers being at the listener's level now. It is very pronounced when listening to music, but it is also beneficial with movies and TV. When I was settling in to write these notes down, I was startled to note how clear and wide the soundstage was on a TV show (hardly the greatest source material) when I wasn't even paying attention to it. Even though I'm not terribly impressed with my workmanship on the stands, I will definitely be leaving the Bookshelves on them until I can find something better to use as supports for them. They deserve to be at their optimal mounting height.