So after I painstakingly put together my new stereo system, I say back and enjoyed the fruits of my labor (and bank account). Day after day, I am astonished that finally at the age of 42 I have a system with fidelity as good as this. But my work is never done! My receiver has two sets of speaker outputs and alas I was only using one. Not good enough! So I copped the above set after some ebay-ing and they are great! I do have to turn the mids down to -2 (I keep it flat at 0 with my larger Marantz speakers). I don’t have enough room to set them up in a way that I can use both sets of speakers at the same time. As it stands right now if I did that, I’d have the stereo image all muddied by not being able to keep the speakers aligned properly with one another. So I basically use the larger Marantz set if I am sitting on my loveseat (and want the full fidelity experience, and want to crank it up a little bit). If I am laying on my couch, I use the Technics, usually when I am listening to the FM radio.
But of course I like to tinker and build things, so the TV tray tables I had them on was not acceptable.
So using the design from my MPC stand, I decided to put together a small set of stands for these small speakers. As usual, 2×6 and 4×4 were the available lumber sizes at hand. After a day or two of brainstorming, I came up with a variation on the design from my MPC stand using a couple different angles on the feet, and a different mounting method.
After a few hours of assembly, and cutting and recutting some of the pieces as my whims changed, I had my speaker stands! The top is taken from a wooden crate that came in from overseas. I used a single (long) nail to mount it so that I could rotate it as needed when I got them home. I cut the flat section 1.5″ wider in both directions than the speakers themselves. The 4x4s I have are all 40″ long, so I just cut one in half to get two at 20″. This is a bit shorter than what I’d prefer but there is something about the economy of material use that appeals to me (I do have more 4x4s).
Next up was paint. I decided to try to do something interesting with the feet to accentuate the different angles. All the paint I used is old and salvaged from other projects. Though to be honest, I do not remember what the baby blue was from.
I have never done so much taping on a project before, and that was a bit tedious but I was determined to carry through with the plan I had in my tiny brain.
Finally after a long weekend I took my babies home. I painted them on a Friday night but had to travel over the weekend and into the next week so they didn’t get taken home as quickly as I would have liked. Which is just as well since the black paint is actually exterior paint so it needs longer to dry so you don’t die from breathing in the toxic fumes. I should have done the baby blue on two surfaces instead of one to better create a 3D experience I think, but you live and learn. Transporting them was a bit interesting because of the way I Kreg’d the feet on. Looking back I should have done it differently, it is too difficult to explain but it could have been more robust. But considering the work they are now doing, it is irrelevant. But suffice to say, they needed to be transported upright and luckily I had a way to do so, and they weren’t too tall. I was (and am) so pleased with these little speakers that I had to send the seller a quick message to thank him and inquire on the lifetime of these little guys.
So my dream system just got a little more dreamy! It is great to have options on how to listen depending on my mood and my needs at the moment.
