Yes, the Torii threw me for a loop which was a surprise since the SE34I-2 gave me none of the cotton ear causing muddle I have been diligently weeding out since the MKIII came. Not having a separate room, I have been careful to make treatments as low key as I can, and this sets up its own issues, but all-in-all it worked.

Some of it was like tube rolling, especially the ART Basik bass unit which apparently absorbs slightly different frequency ranges depending on placement. It is really nice to be able to tune the sound with it though by finding the spot that cuts cluttering resonance most while leaving the most ambient soundstage. And it is little, so easy to play with.

And the most powerful tool (for solving my low-mid/bass muddle) was tuning the speakers. The Marigo dots are easy enough, adding one after another, and by using the very subtle 2mm dot on the driver edge, the changes are notable, but low-key. I just went until the damping was too much, then pulled the last one.

The plinth space adjustments were a pain, but very powerful. I just closed the gap little by little until the offending resonance frequencies were powerfully present, but not resonating. Most of the other treatments I did were pretty straight forward.

The Mac/ZDAC-1 did not fix any of this, but it helped a lot in more ways than one. It was icing on the cake for all the other work I had done, cleaning and refining the whole frequency spectrum. But as importantly, having a trustworthy, articulate, and transparent source makes everything easier to identify and solve. So for this latest speaker tuning exploration; fine tuning tube combinations; and tuning the ART Basik bass station, it was all easier than it was before because everything is more clearly presented causing the bad and good to stick out more.

One less broad result form the ZDAC is that it is much easier to use 5U4G tubes now, where the tighter bottom from 5AR4/GZ34's was usually my favorite before. Now I can use most any tube combination and find it fun! I am using some "GT Britain" labeled RCA 6JD8's and 50's RCA 5U4G-ST's right now and enjoying them a lot. But my latest speaker experiment proved to me that, even with the ZDAC's help, when I pulled the speaker tuning, I could not use these 5U4G's.

I really am glad to have this tool! It refines the sound beautifully on its own, but it makes everything I do from subtle speaker shifts to tubes, not only very clear and apparent, but trustworthy because it does not appear to present any wildcards...make a change and it holds up for most recordings. Ah the ZDAC-1.

But I hear you on tweaky-tweaky mind mess. I have not freaked out yet, but my tools are good enough now, and I understand their natures well enough to know where things are going. This is notably better since the Mac/ZDAC-1.